Purple Insider - a Minnesota Vikings and NFL podcast - How did Week 6 impact the Vikings? (whoa NFC North!!!!!)

Episode Date: October 14, 2024

Matthew Coller analyzes the NFC North games and the rest of the league through a Vikings lens and answers Vikings fan questions Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Hey everybody, welcome to another episode of Purple Insider. Matthew Collar here to break down an absolutely wild day of National Football League football with you. Where Minnesota Vikings fans got to sit at home. No pressure today, just vibes. Watching every game, sit into the couch to the point where you make a mark in it. And whoa, did we see a day of NFC North football? And that is where we have to begin the Detroit lions. I was going to wait until the end of the lions and Cowboys game. Initially I had scheduled this for seven o'clock because I thought, okay, well that game could come down to the final moments. This is going to be, you know, pretty crazy game.

And, uh, no, I believe it's what? 47 to nine at the moment. Is that the score at this? Uh, they score it's 47, nine. Yeah. At the moment, the Detroit lions have completely bashed in the faces of Mike Zimmer's Dallas Cowboys. And Mike Zimmer may not end up making it until week seven in his return to the NFL. If I'm Jerry Jones, there's no way you could go forward with Mike McCarthy and Mike Zimmer, but also that Dallas team, a huge, huge disappointment,

the number of injuries that they had and the Detroit Lions offense. They sputtered a little bit out of the gate, but my friends, they are absolutely back. After the last couple of weeks, they demolished Seattle. They demolished the Dallas Cowboys. And now they are coming this week to play against the Minnesota Vikings in US Bank Stadium and the top defense in the entire league. We have probably the most exciting Lions and Vikings lead up in a game that I don't know that we've ever had that I've ever seen since I started covering this team for sure. Maybe the

last time would be 2017 when it was Thanksgiving Day. Vikings and Lions, both teams were in the playoff race, but we haven't seen this too often. These are two teams that make the case right now for the best two teams in the entire NFC. Lions-Vikings next week after this game. Just an incredible, incredible performance by the Detroit Lions, Jared Goff, the running game for that team, multiple weapons emerging all over the place, and a little bit of edge, I would say, for the Detroit Lions. They ran a hook and ladder to their offensive tackle, which is unhinged, but also you have to respect how insane that was for Dan Campbell to do.

But that team is now clicking very much on all cylinders offensively and their defense today was tremendous. But a big headline from this game is that Aiden Hutchinson is now very likely out for the year after suffering a severe leg injury. And if there was one thing about this defense that would have been scary to the Vikings, as great as Brian O'Neill has been, that Aiden Hutchinson was playing as good as anybody. I mean, he was having a defensive player of the year caliber season, and now he is going to be out probably for the season. I can't see him coming back after the injury that he suffered, which could impact the entire NFC North race.

And then we go around the NFC North and I'll get to your comments, questions, thoughts on a crazy day of football. But my head is spinning a little bit here because I thought Arizona was a little bit scrappy and the Green Bay Packers ran them right out of Lambeau and Jordan Love looked like the quarterback that he was last year. Romeo Dobbs, who was suspended for last week, caught a couple of touchdowns today. They're getting going after that second half against the Vikings seemed to ramp up Green Bay's offense, and they had a tremendous day today. And the Chicago Bears, Caleb Williams, I know that it was against the Jacksonville Jaguars,

and I know that last week it was against the Carolina Panthers. But Caleb Williams, after these last two weeks, if you were hoping that he was going to look like a completely lost rookie by the time he faces the Minnesota Vikings, you're probably not going to get your wish. The NFC North is an absolute behemoth. All three teams that played today in the North had extremely, extremely impressive blowout victories. And as we look forward in this race, we were talking about how many games the Vikings are going to win by the end of this season. And there's, you know, 10, 12, 10 is kind of a worst, worst case scenario. 12 is pretty good. Anything more than that is great. It might actually take

12 or 13 or 14 to win this division as good as the Detroit Lions are. And this is also looking like a three-playoff team division with the way that even Chicago is playing. And so the foot cannot come off the gas at all for the Minnesota Vikings. But really the main headline from the day is how the Detroit Lions looked and the fact that I thought it was going to be pretty difficult for the Lions go to Dallas, play a tough game is what I thought, play a tough game. And then they're going to have to come up to Minnesota, play another tough game that they might be pretty taxed. Well, they're not because they've spent an entire quarter, just kind of chilling, waiting for that

game to be over. And even with Aiden Hutchinson out, their defense, Brian Branch has now emerged as I think one of the best defensive players in the NFL. He was making plays from the very beginning of this game also. So there is a lot going on here, but I guess maybe it's just classic Minnesota Vikings that they have this kind of year. And then the whole rest of the division is also having their kind of year. Now with the Packers back on track and with Dallas, you know, melting down today and letting the Detroit Lions get now to the point where if Detroit comes into US Bank Stadium and wins, then they will be able to tie up this division at the top. And Chicago, their entire vision where they went to the bottom,

they rebuilt the team, they've got a defensive coach, their defense is playing great, and Caleb Williams operating on time, making plays out of structure, fitting balls in tight windows when he's asked to do it. It is just an incredible race that is going to be super fun from here. And honestly, just to tell you the truth, it was a enjoyable, stress-free day to watch it all, but it's going to be maybe the last stress-free day that Vikings have for the rest of the season and Vikings fans have because of how close this division race is ultimately likely to be.

So questions, thoughts, reactions. I see some of you talking about Kevin Stefanski, who maybe should just walk away from that job at this point. If he's being held hostage to the point where he can't bench his absolutely horrific quarterback, then why even continue to coach that team? It feels like he's just making his reputation worse that you'd rather walk away from a team than continue with that. Because if you're a player on the Browns and they can't bench Deshaun Watson, then how do you just carry on?

How do you keep playing? You have the worst quarterback in the entire NFL. And every week, Kevin Stefanski keeps saying, I'm not going to bench him. I'm not going to bench him. I mean, that, that is the worst situation maybe in all of football in Cleveland. So also the Atlanta Falcons, I know again against the Carolina Panthers, but they put up 38 points and the Vikings do play the Falcons later on in the season. Not just Kirk Cousins looking good, that running game, extremely, extremely good for the Falcons. Just, you know, you're seeing that offense come together in ways that people thought that it would if it got activated by a quarterback.

They had struggled so much with the Desmond Ritters, with the Taylor Heinekes, and Kirk is truly playing some point guard out there in Atlanta and just allowing their two great running backs. Kyle Pitts actually got involved a little bit, I think, today. So that team is looking a little bit stronger than maybe we thought over those first couple of weeks. But of course, you would also say that Arizona looks like an easier game after watching them today. Drake May got his first start through a couple interceptions, got his face beat in. The Patriots are horrific, but he also had some really good throws. Spencer Rattler, for all you Spencer Rattler fans out there, had maybe a quarter of good play. And if you were one of the people that is saying,

or that was saying during draft season, Hey, hope you don't get Bo Nix just continues to look like Bo Nix is incapable of throwing the ball at all down the field as they struggled again today. And how fun was, if you watch commanders Ravens, how fun was that game? That game was just a great time. Jaden Daniels played great. Lamar Jackson was better back and forth a really, really exciting day. And, uh, then tonight kind of maybe a forgettable game likely tonight, and then an interesting one for tomorrow. And we'll be live again on Monday night. So, uh, we'll just go back to the top here and go to your comments. Starting right off with Brett, the NFC North, the best division in the NFL by far. It's not even close,

Brett. It's not even close. I mean, the fact that the Chicago Bears, who are the worst team in the division, are excellent and have a winning record and their young quarterback is playing really well. Their defense is playing really well. Their defense is playing really well. This is absolutely a three playoff team division. And I don't know how it's going to go between Chicago and Green Bay. I would still guess that Green Bay has a better chance, but the division games at the end of the year may very well decide this thing. I think they probably will with how the division games go. And also look, I mean, the Vikings are five and oh, and some of you have asked, Hey, they were five and oh, in 2016,

what happened? And I don't recall exactly how the division went that year in 2016, but if there's any reason why this could not end up with 13 or 14 wins, it is because you're playing the best division in football. And they've only through these five games played one divisional game. That means two against Detroit, another one against the Green Bay Packers and two against Chicago that again, it's been a long time. It feels like since Vikings and bears games, maybe 2018 have been really exciting with two great teams going at it, but all the divisional games are going to be must see TV. Uh, when it comes to the Vikings games going forward in the division, um, I get excited about that. Maybe you're nervous about it. about it i will have a lot to talk about leading

into those games uh evan says gonna need week one through three sam darnold to beat the lions next week 100 agree um the way that darnold played in the first half against the packers was really good there was no point against the jets uh where he was really on point, just a drive here or there. The Jets also have such a terrific defense that I was giving some leeway there to that performance. But you're absolutely right that when it comes to playing against the Lions, their defense is improved. I question that a lot going into the season. Okay, are they really going to be a lot better than they were? But I also wonder about how good they're going to be a lot better than they were? But I also wonder about how good they're going to be without Aiden Hutchinson. And David asks, how does the Hutchinson

injury impact the game? And I think that you're talking about the best defensive player in football so far this season that he went into this week leading the NFL over the next best guy by 11 quarterback pressures. He was number one with 40 and Jonathan Grenard is actually number two with 29. So you are talking about the most dominant pass rusher in the entire NFL. And he just gets an unlucky play where it looks like he's going to be out for the entire season. So it does have a very significant impact on the game, because even though the Vikings have done an excellent job of countering the defensive ends and edge rushers that they've played so far this year, Aiden Hutchinson was the scariest of them all with the way that he's been playing. And now they are not going to have him. Naturally, it doesn't look like they'll have is Marcus Davenport on IR. I'm not sure why they signed Marcus Davenport. So they won't have him either, but he was supposed to be a part of that team as he was supposed to be part of the Vikings

last year. And Elaine McNeil is still a problem on the interior, and they were creating a lot of interior pressure against Dak Prescott. That remains a worry for the Vikings. It's not that take this one player out and the entire Detroit defense falls apart because they do have good coverage. Terry and Arnold is a little grabby, but a very talented first round corner. And Brian Branch is a force to be reckoned with. He's a, he's a playmaker. He's kind of a Harrison Smith for them where he's in different spots. He could do a lot of different stuff, intercepts the ball when he gets a chance. They are not a pushover, but it does impact for sure this game with the fact that Sam Darnold doesn't have to face off

with the Lions' best player. And from Sam Darnold's perspective, what you want to see from him is just more of a game manager mindset than he's had maybe the last two weeks. And you'd also like to see the adjustment maybe from the offense in general to look for efficient underneath chain moving stuff because as good as the Vikings defense is I ran across the stat the other day that the Vikings defense had been on the field for the second most plays going into this week in the entire NFL so they needed this break and there'll be a little fresher coming out of it, but you don't want Detroit's offense, knowing how they can control the ball, knowing how they can run the football excellently with their two great running backs.

Their short passing game is fantastic. You don't want Detroit to be on the field for the entire game because we have seen the Vikings defense get worn out toward the end of the last two games. And that's when they started giving up some bigger plays. So it will be important for Darnold to be more of an underneath passer, more of a chain mover. The screen game has to come back. The running game will be a big question here because we don't know the status of Aaron Jones. We'll talk to Kevin O'Connell on Wednesday, I think, right? So that will be our first update on Aaron Jones. We'll be on Wednesday to see whether he's going to be practicing this week, not practicing, what his recovery has been like over the bi-week, but Ty Chandler in his absence, if he's not able to play is going to be a big part of this game. You have to control the ball against the Detroit lions. Uh, blowfish. It says Vikings could contact the Browns to return defensive tackle, Delvin Tomlinson to Minnesota. Yeah. You know, that's a name that I didn't really think of because I was not thinking that the Vikings would be talking to the Cleveland Browns. I mean,

I felt like that team would be trying to win no matter what, uh, with Deshaun Watson, that they couldn't go into sell-off mode, tank mode. And that might still be true. They might have to just fight it out until the fight is over, which could be pretty soon actually, but they might just as the Vikings did for a few years, when you're in desperation mode, you don't end up making the right trades for the future and all that. But if you're asking me, would it be good if the Vikings got Delvin Tomlinson back? I'm not sure of his contract situation. That might be tough to work around, but he was an excellent player for this team. And if you could shore up

the interior of that defensive line with a player like him, I know he's not necessarily a threat in the pass rushing, but I mean, if you got a rotation going of him, Harrison Phillips, and then Jerry Tillery mixing in Jonathan Bullard. That would be big for them. I tend to think that maybe someone who could rush the passer, but I would still take him back. He's a really good player. I just don't know if Cleveland's going to go into sell mode or not, but I do know, and is one of my takeaways from today, by the way, Jacksonville farm, that roster, Brandon Sheriff, the right guard, that might be the guy Travis ETN hurt his hamstring, but that's another guy that I might have some eyes on for a potential trade. Tank says, my concern is the Vikings offense, not being

consistent enough to go toe to toe with the lions offense. This Lions offense is as good as any over the last five years. I mean, they have so much and they have an incredible play caller. They have great weapons. I know that Jamison Williams dropped one today. He's been effective this year. Amin Ross St. Brown is elite. Sam Laporta with, how about that end around reverse flea flicker thing that they ran to get the ball to Laporta for an explosive play they've got creativity they've got chemistry they've got a great offensive line and the Vikings what they've been so far this year has kind of been boom or bust where their percentage of drives that they score on is not particularly high, but they've just created quick scores a lot of times. And I think they're just going to have to change that philosophy a little bit

for this game where it will have to be some longer drives and not just looking for explosives all the time. Because if you get three and outs and give the ball back to Detroit and you aren't, as you said, a consistent offense, it's going to, it's going to be trouble. And, and I think that Brian Flores will be as well prepared as anyone can be against this Detroit offense, but even last year, and the personnel is way better this time around, but last year, Detroit was one of the teams, one of only a couple teams that solved Flores' defense. And the other thing is too, when we look at Flores' defense versus the Lions'

offense, Jared Goff is so good at not turning the ball over. He's so good at not taking sacks. The Vikings' defense has really lived a lot on creating turnovers which i don't think is random or luck but when you're facing a quarterback whose history is so good at not turning the ball over that that evens the playing field a little bit uh gazinkid says uh which team is kevin stefanski going to be oc for next year? I mean, the way things are going right now, the way his offense looks, and I know it's not his fault, but I mean, the answer might be Penn University. Honestly, like if you're Kevin Stefanski, you got to be worried. This whole thing is destroying your coaching career.

And look, you sign a deal with the devil, you get what you get. And that's what they did. And karma has really come around in the NFL. I don't know if karma is a real thing, but it certainly looks like it there. I mean, I can't feel bad for Kevin Stefanski. He's part of that whole thing. And I remember the stories that came out about how he was calling Deshaun Watson and they were designing offense together and they were so excited. And there was all those puff pieces in Cleveland about how great their

offense was going to be with Stefanski and Watson. It's you get, you get what you get when you make that kind of deal. So I wouldn't, I think he might have a little bit of a tough time bouncing back from this. I assume that they're going to fire him at some point. Major 33 says in all capital letters, one thing you're forgetting is this division still has their toughest part of the schedule to play.

I assume you mean the other teams in the division. And I haven't looked at everybody's schedule. It does certainly help the Vikings that after Detroit and after LA, which I think they should take LA very seriously. They've got a great coach. They've got a great quarterback and a good defense. And you have to turn around after a division game, go on the road and play in LA, which I know won't be a road game, but at least it is travel. After that, you have to travel, change time zones, play on a Thursday night game that are always a little bit weird and wonky. So that is going to be tough these next few weeks. And then after watching Jacksonville today, after watching Tennessee today, even Indianapolis, what was

exciting about Indianapolis? And Anthony Richardson hasn't played enough football to understand even how to play yet. Those should all be games that the Vikings steamroll if they're a legitimate team. And so I'm never into just writing in free Ws, but my goodness, the only thing you'd have to worry about in Jacksonville is if they get a little boost from whoever their interim coach is going to be. What an entire hot

mess the Jacksonville Jaguars are. And I guess we do have to get to a point where we say, is Trevor Lawrence actually good? Because, you know, I mean, I, I just feel like year after year, Trevor Lawrence has gotten a pass. And I think when we get to five straight years of being disappointing, that maybe we do have to acknowledge that draft status does not equal who you are in the NFL. I did have a funny thought today that in the year 2033, Trevor Lawrence will play for the Vikings and win MVP or something just because, but that team is a complete mess, which I think to some extent does take away a little bit from

the Bears performance, but the fact they blew them out. I mean, if you, I said this about the Vikings and Giants week one, that I give full credit for blowouts of bad teams. If you go in and you smash the heck out of a bad team, double thumbs up, like you get credit for that. In the same way you do for a close win against a good team, I think it's very telling and shows you where Chicago is at, but it definitely also shows you where Doug Peterson has that team. Jacob says, I would think that Zimmer might be thinking of retiring

after that game he's got to be just pissed a part of it too and it's not to let him off the hook very clearly look if you go away from the game for a year or two years it's really hard to just drop back in because the nfl is always changing so much with its details of how offenses run, how often there's motion, how often there's deception and different pre-snap stuff, concepts that are working now against certain defenses. If you just go away, it's very hard to just drop back in. And we saw this from John Gruden. It took him, what, two years to get back in the mix after he had been a broadcaster. It's not an easy thing to do. But also, if you have no Micah Parsons

and half the rest of the roster is out, your secondary is out, it's going to be pretty hard to face one of the best offenses, if not the best offense in the entire NFL. And that's what Zimmer is dealing with, that he's probably having some flashbacks to 2021 when they lost Daniil Hunter or 2020 when Hunter was out for the whole season, that that has been a trend. But also now it has been a very long time, just time span since Mike

Zimmer had a good defense. We have to go back five whole years of our lives to the last time Mike Zimmer had a good defense. And it's very possible that the game is just passed him by and they made this higher thinking, well, we're going to bring in somebody who can help us stop the run because Dan Quinn's defenses got run on, et cetera. And yet it doesn't feel like they are anywhere close to what they were in the past as defenses. And I mean, for Jerry, what else can Jerry Jones really do except for fire both of them and try something else? I mean, you can't, you just couldn't be surprised at this point after they've written it out for so many years with Mike McCarthy now at 47 to nine would be kind of a straw that broke the camel's back for a team that consistently couldn't get over the hump, but now may not even reach the

hump the way that they're playing. Washington was good today. That team is probably going to be in the playoffs. Philly might grind their way there. And, uh, it looks like the Cowboys are just in very, very tough shape. Uh, macho Mee Meech says, how much should we care about the Bears and Packers considering they've only beaten horrendous teams? I mean, you should. You should care about the Bears and Packers. I would not call Arizona a horrendous team. Arizona just beat San Francisco last week,

and they played tough against Buffalo. They played tough against Detroit. They have a franchise quarterback who makes a lot of money. They have a coach that is thought of pretty well and has had that team playing pretty well. This was a very, very impressive win for Green Bay. It was complete dominance of the Arizona Cardinals on all phases of that game. And the Packers getting Jordan Love back to a hundred percent. He looked great today. He was moving extremely well. He was throwing the ball underneath very well, which he kind of struggled against the Vikings. I mean, I'm always going to live this way that the two, I mean, blowing out a good team is the best possible win you can have. If the Vikings blow out the Texans, that's the best win you can have. And if you win close against

a good team, full marks, anytime you could beat a good team in the NFL, it's great. But the, the equal to that, or the next best thing is blowing out a bad team because that's what you should do. There's no better result when you play a bad team. Jacksonville is a bad team. Carolina is a bad team. That's who Chicago beat last week. So I guess I would lean a little more toward, I think the Packers are a really good team. And when the Vikings cracked open the door, the Packers were right there and almost came back to win that game. I am not totally sure yet on the Bears, but when you look at their defense, their running game was pretty good today, but especially the defensive side, Caleb Williams doesn't have to throw for 300 plus yards every game for them

to be dangerous. I don't think either team has an argument of being better than the Vikings because the Vikings have better wins throughout the start of the season, including against Green Bay, including against, I still think San Francisco is a pretty good team. I definitely think Houston is a great team and has Super Bowl aspirations. So the Vikings have better wins than those teams. And if we were power ranking, I would still put the Vikings as the top NFC North team for the wins they have and being undefeated. But Detroit is pretty much dead on even. And then the Packers to me, just a shade below and the Bears one step behind. But the way that Caleb Williams is developing, I think that's probably the concern that you have, maybe even more than what they're going to do this year against the Vikings, is that Caleb Williams has started to look like a very solid player much more often rather than kind of crazy highs, crazy lows. And he did have a bad interception today, but overall very, very good

performance from Caleb Williams. And there's no, to me, there's no downplaying these things. I think when your team from a Viking fan perspective, think of it this way, there's always a tendency to be like, no, they're not that good because it makes you feel better. But I think that with the Vikings being as good as they are right now, I think your mentality should be, let's play some football. Let's see. This is exciting. I think that this is an exciting time for the NFC North because every one of these games is going to be awesome. Going to Soldier Field, how many years has it been since the Vikings went to Soldier Field and we went, oh, this is a big one.

Here we go. Let's see some football. Has been a while. I really think that 2018 national TV game where Kirk said they flex this game for us. Uh, that's probably the last time that it was really big between these two teams. And that's going to be exciting in a few weeks from now, the same with Detroit where, you know, last year, uh, Vikings Detroit kind of had a damper on it because it was Nick Mullins and, you know, it was the two games at the end of the season after things had already kind of come apart.

So it was, they were playing for the remaining in the playoff race, but it didn't have that big juice, that energy leading up to it. This is going to be the game of the weekend next week for the entire NFL, the Vikings and the lions. So when you can be the centerpiece of the whole league, that tells you that you're relevant and it's a big deal. And that's a good place to be. Although I'm sure certainly some of you would prefer that those teams would just go away and be bad, but no matter what you do, you got to earn your way there, right? If you can beat these teams

and you can win this division, then you go into the playoffs having already played in a division of the best teams with a chance to really fight for a Super Bowl. And we'll know how strong the Vikings are at that point. Blowfishes says we need to cover at running back. If Jones is limited, we need another running back like him. Chandler can be great, but doesn't fit this offense. I think where you're right is that they're two different running backs. They both do like kind of those outside pitches so they can keep those in, but the between the tackle stuff, Jones is elite at running between the tackles and putting his shoulder down. This is why in part, I'm sure he gets banged up a lot is because he runs with such a drive and such a toughness that I don't see the same kind of thing from Ty Chandler. It's really a speed runner. I do think that they need to make sure that

opponents do not take away the screen game that was so effective. And, you know, Wes Phillips, a Vikings offensive coordinator did kind of explain to us last week that you can only really run screens against certain coverages and maybe the jets weren't giving him those coverages, but you have to have that going because Ty Chandler in space is phenomenal. Also could lean on CJ Ham a little bit more. I don't think that there's an answer this week to fixing the running back but i do look at someone like etn if he's not severely injured miles sanders in carolina tony pollard in tennessee those guys have to be considering making moves at this point because those seasons are pretty much over for Carolina, for Tennessee.

So they should be looking to sell off parts and Jacksonville as well. As Tang says, the Vikings still need to make a move at right guard. Ingram is way too much of a liability against good interior DTs. 100% agree. We've gotten to the point of let's give him time let's give him development let's see how this plays out and how it's played out is very poorly he is grading by pff is one of the worst right guards in football again and here's a really crazy number for you about this season for ed ingram there's a stat called pass blocking efficiency, which is basically just how often you allow a pressure versus how many opportunities. And his pass blocking efficiency is lower than Dakota Dozier's career number. So he is essentially playing at a worse level in

pass protection than Dakota Dozier did. Time to look for a right guard. If Dalton Reiser's not going to be healthy anytime soon, then they do need to consider making a trade there. Oh gosh, this bring back Ezra Cleveland. Ezra Cleveland is graded much higher than Ed Ingram since he left. They just never really liked his playing style, I guess, but he's always gotten pretty good grades. Uh, let's see. I'm not sure how to pronounce the name here. Uh, so Salia, is that how it's pronounced? Uh, next week will be a good test for the Vikings. I, I totally agree that this is now the bar is, this is the best team in the NFC, or this is the best team in the NFC or this is the best team in the NFC. Let's find out because it's either the Vikings or the lions and they're going to play. And that's exciting, but it is also a good test. Now, if the Vikings don't win, that doesn't mean the season's

over and doesn't mean you're a fraud and it doesn't mean, okay, you'll never play with a team like the lions. Cause they'll get another shot at them. And NFC North games are always tough, but it will say that maybe you're not on that level. It may one way or the other inspire something like a trade. I mean, I tend to think that if they win that, okay, you can start making phone calls. If you were, if you beat Detroit at home, then you, yes, you start making phone calls, uh, and trying to look for anybody to add to your team, because that means you are the best team in football. Uh, if you end up beating the Detroit lions next week, it is, it is a good bar to set because as we're trying to decide how good is this team really? We know they're good.

And I did a huge analytics deep dive on this for the newsletter. If you want to go check that out at purpleinsider.com, go ahead. It's, I had a good time with it. Like how often five and O teams make the playoffs, win 11, 12 games. I looked into that and spoiler. It's a lot. It's very rare that they don't. So the Vikings are in great shape.

But how great? That's really the question of this week. Jordan says, Brian Flores has trumped Kyle Shanahan, Sean McVay, and Matt LaFleur. Why in the world would I assume he can't blank Ben Johnson too? Well, number one is that Ben Johnson ran the Vikings off the field last season in two different games. That's number one. I think as of this moment, now when you're talking about Sean McVay, that was in the Rams' worst year as an offense, 2020. So that was a while back. I'm not sure you could totally throw that out there at this point

because they did not have a good offense that year. It's really the one year that they didn't under Sean McVay. As far as Kyle Shanahan, you're right. They did outplay Miami, or I'm sorry. They outplayed San Francisco twice in the last two years. And Matt LaFleur, you're right that they outplayed them in the first half of that game and Jordan Love struggled not the second time they faced Jordan Love last year but now two out of three times facing him this is the best defense in football right now

and having the best offense versus the best defense is quite a battle but when we're talking about Ben Johnson it's not just him and he's a great play caller, but it's their offensive line. And this is where the Vikings have really, really been great is creating pressure. The Vikings have the second highest pressure rate in the entire NFL. But if you can't get pressure on Jared Goff, he could sit back there and still diagnose things. I mean, this is one of the smartest quarterbacks in the league, one of the most experienced quarterbacks in the league. He can sit back there and find his receivers and get rid of the ball quickly. And they run the ball extremely well. No one has really tested the Vikings as far as

running because they've always been up by so much. It's hard to run against the team when they are up by 17 points or when you're trailing by 17 points. So that will be a test too, because it's not as likely that the Vikings come out, steal the ball away, score a touchdown, get up three scores against a team of this caliber. So that's why it's a great test, but you're talking about the premier offensive and defensive mind in the entire NFL. I mean, football, everybody come on. But I wouldn't, I would not underestimate the lions and what they can do, but do the Vikings have a chance to slow them down? A hundred percent. They do. So it's just a great opponent though, um, that you have to take seriously how good their offense is.

Sindrew says, chances they bring back Hawkinson for this game. Almost none. I don't think so. I mean, it is like they could legally, but he has had so little practice coming off an ACL injury that I just don't think that's what's going to happen. I think that more likely than not, we're talking about Hawkinson for Thursday night to get them a whole week of

practice and then have a fresh body coming in as well. After they play a game on Sunday, that'll likely be a taxing game. And then to have somebody fresh coming in, I think I wouldn't be surprised if they do the same thing with Aaron Jones, which is to have Jones and Hawkinson coming back. So you have a couple of guys that haven't played in that Sunday game that are at a hundred percent coming in. But at least, you know, Adam Schefter reported that Hawkinson is more likely to come back against the Rams or even the following week against Indianapolis. They want him to be a hundred percent because you're five and oh, if you rush it and he's not fully back and it hurts his progress of recovering and getting back to a hundred percent, that's not good for your long-term.

This game is important, but the long-term of this season and having TJ Hawkinson is way more important. So, and, and it's not like they've gotten bad performances out of the tight ends. I'd actually like to see them use them more. Uh, let's see. Uh, Jordan says, uh, add in the fact that they are definitely going to try to test the D line, running the ball before as routinely calls effective run blitzes to make up for deficits in talent upfront. Uh, he does, he does. He does. He's very, very good at stuffing gaps, at guessing right when it comes to run situations. Blake Cashman has been a mega part of this defense being good against the run. But I think the main thing that has been good against

the run is being up by 17. They have been up so much for this season that no team has had a chance to really get it going because you may try to mix in runs here or there as the Jets did. And the Jets are a hot mess up front. So they may try to mix in a few runs here or there, but they had to throw the ball and try to get back in the game. Whereas I don't think Detroit is going to give you a three score lead and then have to stop running the ball. It's so fundamental to what they do. It's not this sort of other thing that they have as an option.

It is the foundation of what they do. And that will be a really good test for the Vikings run. Defense is going up against Ben Johnson in that line. Let's see. Blowfishes says Brandon Sheriff mentioned interest in playing for the Vikings before signing with the Jaguars. Yeah. I mean, that's a perfect type of target. Perfect type of target for the Vikings. Earl says, OMG, dude, we're on a bye week. And here comes the worried warrior. Okay. I don't think I've ever been called the worried warrior before, but it's not worried.

I don't worry about any of this. I'm not playing. And I also don't have any skin in the game, but I am interested. I'm always interested. And I'm actually quite excited about the games that are coming up here because the NFC North just had a hell of a day, an unbelievable day from the NFC North. And here's the Vikings 5-0 looking at all these other teams saying, all right, let's go. It's on. This is going to be one heck of a battle and one heck of a race to the finish because Green Bay is playing great. Love looks fantastic. The last couple of weeks, Caleb Williams is coming on and emerging as maybe

a legitimate star quarterback. Certainly looked like at the last two weeks and the Detroit Lions just beat somebody 47 to nine. And here's the Vikings who have had the best start of anybody. We got some football on our hands, dude. And, uh, that's exciting. Not worried about it. I'm freaking pumped. I mean, do you know how, how many years we've kind of sat through the Vikings and other teams playing games where we went, well, you know, maybe if some stuff goes wrong for the other team, then you could maybe beat them. Or I think that they can maybe get to nine wins if they sort of have this go right or wrong.

Well, you know, that seven seed is possible. You know how exhausting that is? Of course you do. You've seen it for most of your life with the Vikings. So you get a situation where it's five and oh, and everybody's good. It's on. I mean, this is, this is as fun of a race as you're going to see in the NFL with this division. This is the story of the year in the NFL is this division worried. I'm not worried about that. I'm glad to be right in the middle of it. But I'm also going to say the other teams are good, man. I'm not living in a fantasy land here. Mike says, JJ encouraged Sam to trust him that he's never really covered. Did this have a play

into what we saw against the Jets? He was clamped and frustrated, but Sam kept trying when he maybe shouldn't have. It's a great question, Mike. And I don't know for sure. When I watched the clips back, I thought that some of his attempts to throw it to Jefferson when he was covered were not terrible decisions. There weren't other people around. There were opportunities there. There's one on a slant route where he just gets grabbed. Jefferson just gets grabbed and gets pulled down. The throw was there. He would have made the catch. There was no call. There's another one or two where the defensive back just made a great play. It's pretty rare that any corner can hang with Jefferson the way that DJ Reed did in that game and saw

Skarner a couple times, but Reed did a tremendous job against him. So I wouldn't want to tell Sam Darnold to stop doing that, to stop throwing it up to Justin Jefferson just because it happened in one game, but it was a factor. It was a factor that their corners played super, super physical. It's sort of like how a couple of years ago, I think it was Jeff Okuda had a good game against him and that guy hasn't turned out to be a good corner, but he had a great day because his whole strategy, he was, he was athletic enough. And his whole strategy was just to grab Jefferson over and over. And if you are physical enough,

you can do that and slow them down a little bit. It might be the only way to do it is to hope the referees don't make calls. And they still did a lot in the Jets game. And I did make the case that if we added up all the penalty yards, that Darnold's quarterback rating would have been a lot higher and Jefferson's day would have been a lot better. But there are a few teams that are going to be able to do that. I will be curious though. Terry and Arnold has been flagged quite a few times. If he's the guy that gets to play against Jefferson, great matchups all over the field. Cannot wait to preview this game. Preston says Dallas going to fire both head coach and defensive coordinator after this embarrassment. Well, they should. There's no reason to go forward. No reason to get forward or to go forward with Zimmer and McCarthy after this.

That's an absolute joke. Blowfish says, most quarterbacks we've faced this year have a reputation for not throwing interceptions and getting sacked. That is true. That is true. I think if there is one, well, some of them were a little weird. I mean, Brock Purdy just kind of held his hand up and then lost the ball, which was a little bit strange.

And the thing that's different about Jared Goff is, number one, his offensive line is phenomenal. I don't think that any of the other teams they've faced have had really good offensive lines. The Packers are maybe the best, but the Texans, their offensive line was banged up. They were missing a couple of guys. If you've seen San Francisco this year, they're good at run blocking, but I have not been that impressed with their pass protection outside of Trent Williams and Williams wasn't fully ramped

up. I'm not taking away from what the Vikings have done there, just that Detroit is different. They have a really excellent run game. They have so many options and they have the best offensive line in the NFL. I think it will be a little different. And Goff also, it was very clear CJ Stroud was shook by US Bank Stadium. Jared Goff won't be. He's been here too many times he's won in u.s bank stadium too many times i don't think he's going to be freaked out about it the way that stroud was uh my point is that you can't just count on getting an interception on the first or second drive of every game it's going to have to be a down-to-down play-to-play type of thing where they're going to have to really battle with that team because detroit will grind down. So it's a great test for the defense. Just to make clear, I'm not

worried about it. I'm just pointing it out as a factor. It's one of the best things Jared Goff does is protect the football at an elite level and doesn't take too many sacks. So if he does that in the game, then it could be difficult for the Vikings. Let's see. Zoomer Kev says free agency doesn't look too enticing next year. Haven't looked at it. Really don't care about it right now. Trading for talent could be the best option regardless of the record. No, that's true. That's a good point. Yeah. I haven't thought about the 2025 off season for a second, which is a really great feeling.

But to your point, if you're trading for someone and extending them, then that just is even better for the Vikings. Truly, even better. Because if you could get a JC Horn, that's a guy I've suggested. If you could get a player under contract that a team just doesn't want to waste his future or is demanding a trade, that might be Jeffrey Simmons. It might be Dexter Lawrence. I don't know about Lawrence. I think they're going to keep trying to battle because that division is pretty weak. If they win tonight, then the Giants won't be

thinking about that. But Jeffrey Simmons, I mean, he could be looking around going, I signed this huge contract and here I am on this just pathetic team. Mike says, was there a final assessment of his injury? I got actually the Adam Schefter update here that he underwent immediate surgery and the team is calling it now a broken tibia. So that sounds like out for the year to me. I am not a doctor or a fake injury analyst like there are many on Twitter. But I think that sounds pretty bad for Aiden Hutchinson. So definitely not going to play anytime soon. I guess we'll, I really don't know about that injury. But that sounds

like out for the year, which is tragic for that defense because it's all built around him. And he's such an excellent player, but it does impact next week's game for the Vikings that they don't have to face the defensive MVP that matters for the Vikings. Uh, AS says you think Cleveland media is still taking shots at you for accurately, accurately reporting how bad Watson looked in joint practices, or are they preoccupied now? Yeah, I do think they're preoccupied now. That was just, I just couldn't believe that. I just couldn't believe that when I said it on their radio station after the joint practices, I was like, man, your offense is bad. And after I said it, and I also reported that their defense had looked good against the Vikings in those practices. I didn't think that it, that their

media would push back against it because we were all watching the same practice. But I guess one of us was watching the right stuff. I don't know. That was, that was pretty strange. That was pretty strange, but that's, it is the worst Watson's quarterback play. I'm not kidding. You is the most unwatchable quarterback play of my lifetime for a starting quarterback. I have never seen a starting quarterback. Don't even worry about the paycheck. Just someone who's going to play the whole season ever looks so lost. So just disconnected from what he's doing. There is no explosiveness. There is no accuracy. There's no timing. He is just done back there. And it is really pathetic to watch, but I can't say it's sad to watch because all of us wanted this to

happen to Deshaun Watson in Cleveland. And I guess I would just say that there was one hint of a report a few years back that the Vikings checked in on that situation and they are in a way, way better spot now and probably thanking their lucky stars that they did not go in on Deshaun Watson. Let's see. I need a fantasy question, by the way. I had a fantasy draft for today. I'll have to look up how that went. I think it went okay. I had Jaden Daniels and I also had, but I had Amon Ross St. Brown and I'm watching the game going all these points and no one's throwing to Amon Ross St. Brown. But if you watching the game going all these points and no one's throwing to Amon Ross St. Brown. Uh, but if you've got a fantasy question, throw that in because our

great sponsors at underdog, uh, you know, I've been playing over there quite a bit. Uh, Jason says, I'm telling you right now, look at Jared Goff versus the blitz. Goff is going to be one of the worst quarterbacks we've played this year. Look at the Tampa game. I know what you're saying. I know what you're saying. But if you're going to ask me to disrespect Jared Goff, it does not happen on this show. He has had way, way too many great games against the Minnesota Vikings, including two last year where they blitz the heck out of them. And he is just excellent in that offense. They protect him extremely well. They run the ball extremely well. And Jared Goff is one of the best decision makers

with the football. He gets the ball out quickly. He finds his open receivers. I mean, he is consistently operated top five offenses year in and year out in the NFL. I think he's one of the best quarterbacks in the league. And I think the biggest thing in quarterback analysis that people always miss, they look at arm, they look at size, they look at speed, But the biggest thing they miss is decision-making, where you are throwing the football, how you are assessing what is in front of you from the defense. And Jared Goff is elite, elite at that and has a strong enough arm to make any throw. They have great receivers. I mean, I think what you're saying is a great factor to bring up though, for sure.

He hasn't played well against the blitz so far this season how are floris's blitzes going to potentially get to jared goff how is this unbelievable offensive line going to be countered by the different looks that brian floris gives him great theater. Uh, but if you're saying, Hey, I'm a golf, won't do anything against this defense. Well, I am not one to underrate, uh, Jared golf. That's that's how I would put it. Uh, let's see. Uh, the Pollock 34 says I had zero expectations for this year, but I'm ready to get hurt again. Expectations for this year are at the trade deadline or not trade deadline, uh, bi-week, uh, a fun thing to talk about because I was joking around the other day with Kevin Seifert when he came on the show about like, Oh, we all had them at five and all right. And, uh, I remember when we were in Vegas and we did the couple of shows out there in the summer, myself and Brian Murphy. And we were talking about, yeah, you know, if they can get to two and three, then they could

survive and they could be in this playoff race. And to go five and O is so far ahead of expectations that you almost don't even know what to do. You don't even like, what do I do with my hands that they're this far ahead of expectations. But I would say, you said you had zero expectations. I had expectations that they would look good, that they would be competitive every game or almost every game, and that they would have a good defense and that Jefferson would catch a lot of footballs and Jones would be good at running and O'Connell's offense would work for Sam Darnold. I just didn't expect them to have the best defense in football and to dominate the turnovers the way that they did so far

and to hit on so many big plays from Sam Darnold and then also get clutch drives out of him in three different games where they really needed a clutch drive. He was there to do it, to put another team away. And doing that on a consistent basis, I did not expect. I had them as a fringe playoff team going into this year, and I thought it was a great test case. Like, let's see how far along they are in this road to being competitive.

And I thought that they would show us that they were three quarters of the way there and they just needed next year's off season to push them over the top. But now they're already there. They're already over the top. And that's why they should also, you know, act like it when it comes to the trade deadline. That's what I think. I mean, I, I think there is another side of that. Um, there is another side of that, uh, which is they do have a future and it's not like they're going to be folding the franchise after this year. Uh, but they have enough money to spend to make up for the draft capital. If they have to, uh, make a big move.

Uh, some of you calling for Patriots, Michael Onwenu. I actually don't know how to say his name. I don't think I've thought about the Patriots at all until Drake May played. Let's see. Let's see. Benjamin says there's an analytics thing about guards not having a relevant war analytics hat please matthew well you know i think if we're looking at the analytics of an offensive line the biggest thing is it's about weak links that if you there was a study on this about weak links and offensive lines if you have one you can survive it if you have one, you can survive it. If you have more than one, it will negatively impact your production. And right now, the Vikings are kind of at one and a half. Brandel and Bradbury have bounced back and forth for who's having the good game and bad

game so far this year. I also think that if you have a catastrophic right guard in terms of pass protection. It matters a lot. Fork and Skoll says his run block has been way better than Reisner. Quit whining about him. No, I won't. Because when you watch the game, how often is a free runner coming right from the defensive tackle at your quarterback? That matters a lot. That matters a lot. I think you can work around a run blocking, mediocre run blocking like Reisner a lot easier than instant losses that hit your quarterback. And you're going to play Elaine McNeil, who is one of the better interior rushers. It matters, man. It matters a lot. You can have a middling right guard and be okay,

but it will impact you when it comes to the pass protection like that. I would much rather have Dalton Risen. Let's see. Dak says, if you think Trevor is bad, you aren't watching Jags games. Oh no, I've been accused of whining and not watching Jags games. Second year in a row with the highest drop percentage. Okay, fifth year in a row of excuses for Trevor Lawrence. There you go. I'm not going to fight about it. But at some point in this man's career, he has to produce something or I'm just not going to believe that he's a great quarterback.

I'm sorry. That's usually how sports work. And do I think he could be better than this? Of course I do. But if we're just going to blame the receivers all the time, if we're just going to blame the coach all the time, at some point, it's probably has something to do with the guy not being as good as people thought he was going to be. You're clearly missing something there. Let's see. Rob says, have any of the NFC North teams played anyone good this year so far? Well, it depends on your definition of good. I mean, the Lions ran Seattle out of the

building. They ran Dallas out of the building. Those are not good teams, but they weren't that bad until they played Detroit. I would also call Arizona a good team. They were not a great team. They were a good team, but they have not played a group of teams as good as the Vikings. There's no question about that. They have beaten the tar out of some of those bad teams, but no, they have not played teams on the same level as the Vikings. That's true. And that's why if you were ranking them all, you would put the Vikings at the top of all of these teams because they have played a better group of scheduled teams ahead of them. But I also think that when you're talking about, like when we are evaluating how good a team is, when they go to another team's home stadium that is been winning games in recent

years and is has high expectations and they win 47 to nine i don't think you could downplay that i really don't it's it's similar to you know the vikings blowing out the giants like i i didn't downplay that i did not down downplay them beating the giants because I thought the same thing. If you blow out bad teams, you deserve lots of credit for it. Brett says Detroit has almost everything. Quarterback line, running backs, receivers, tight end, good defense, special teams, and their coaches are great. Loss of Hutchinson hurts a lot, but they have a lot of other good players. They do. Yeah, they're a great team. It's, it's, you don't have to feel threatened by the good teams when your team is good.

That's how I look at it. Don't feel threatened by the good teams when your teams are also good. Let's see. Rock City says, I know that it's super early, but do we live in a world where Max Crosby could soon be a Detroit Lion? Maybe if they're, they gotta be on the phones right away. As soon as Aiden Hutchinson goes down, they have to be on the phones, making phone calls to try to get another edge rusher because Hutchinson very hard to replace that, but they should be trying to add to it. They are as good as it gets in the NFL along with the Vikings, but they are as good as it gets in the NFL and to lose their best player on defense is a big blow to them. And they should be looking for replacements

because I think that's what you do when the bar is set at Super Bowl, as I think the Vikings should be risen to that level. You go out and try to add as much talent as you possibly can or make up for any injuries that you can. They should be doing that. But I don't know if Max Crosby is going to be out there or not. 2A Ditelli. This game will be the best test for the Vikings. Lions have one of the best

put together offenses and their play design is crazy. It really will be. It really will be. I mean, I think that we're going to get a great, a great look at this defense against how it looks against an elite offense. And yes, I mean, San Francisco's got an elite offense too. They were great against them. There's no downplaying that. I'm not downplaying it. I think that the Vikings offense, or I'm sorry, their defense has played great offenses and it's every bit as good as we say it is. But I also think this is the best offense they're going to face so far uh let's see uh sam timber that's good thoughts on drake may's opener in hindsight should have traded three knowing 2025 first round pick would be low uncertainty post-injury mccarthy and unproductive dallas turner that it is way, way, way too early to be saying that, uh, I really liked what I saw

from JJ McCarthy this off season really liked it. He was much better than I thought he was going to be. And he convinced Kevin O'Connell that he's the future of the franchise in the months that they were together. And it's a meniscus. I mean, it's not, I mean, there's no uncertainty of that, uh, after it's a successful surgery, I'll say, because there was an instance of that being a problem, but after a successful surgery, there's no concern about his, uh, in fact, it's actually better for him, the repair that he got long-term. So they feel great about that. Uh, I also wouldn't call Dallas Turner unproductive. He's played 77 snaps because they have, think about this. They have the number two player in the NFL in pressures in Jonathan Grenard. And they have a guy who's made a case for defensive MVP

with two pick sixes and several sacks and tons of tackles in Andrew Van Ginkle as their two edge rushers. He's mixed in. He's made a handful of plays. He picked up a sack in the first game. He missed the game with an injury. I mean, if we're declaring, if we're declaring Dallas Turner as not being successful after he's played, I think 77 snaps, uh, take a deep breath on that. Um, but to your question about Drake may, I thought you saw all the things of Drake may that were talked about during draft season. And you saw all the problems of the new England Patriots. He got killed several times in the pocket, just absolutely smashed, including one time byil Hunter, which I'm glad he's alive after that.

And he also made some absolutely spectacular throws. The throw down the sideline for a touchdown was mind-blowing. Just the ease in which he guided the ball in there. It actually looked like Sam Darnold with the arm talent, how he just, it was like a cruiser right into the guy's hands, perfect arc, everything. He had some great throws. He had a really tough time at times. One pinballing interception. I thought he showed his talents.

The other thing, side note, the Vikings couldn't have traded their three picks. The Patriots weren't taking that. I think the Vikings did offer something like that, but the Patriots weren't taking it. Let's see. Sean says, if not for the interdivisional games, you could see all four teams make the playoffs, probably three. We will see how deep they are to overcome losing their best player. Yeah, on defense, we'll see how deep they are. You're right. They need to find a replacement as an edge rusher, or it's going to hurt them.

I don't think it's going to crush them because they do have other good players. Carlton Davis, Branch has been outstanding. They've got some other guys that they've drafted like Terry and Arnold. They've got talent, but he is the engine of that defense. Being without him is a big problem. B Twixt says, if we don't trade our first for a win now defensive tackle or something we aren't serious about winning well the the option has to be there the option has to be there yep um it it does it because you can't just say well they have to trade for a defensive tackle or they're not serious there has to be someone to trade for at the right price. If you're calling Tennessee and saying, we'll give you our first for Jeffrey Simmons. And they say, no, there's not a whole

lot that you've got that you can do about it. Really. Um, there really isn't. So, um, I just think that they're, they're going to, they should try. I think they should try. But I don't think that it means they're not serious about winning because you have to have the right deal. But if the opportunity is there, then I feel like they need to take it. Little Iggy says, my preseason prediction was 12 and five. I'm pretty much a genius. Could be,

uh, I'd like to see all your other predictions, but that is, that is a good call. If you were on top of this. Yep. That is a good call. Hey, some people were feeling that way. Some people were feeling like this is a great team. I don't know what you're talking about, including Aaron Jones. You know, when he came here, he said, this team is great. Uh, I look at all the playmakers and think they're awesome. I was a little bit tempered in the idea that they could win more than 10, but I also thought that 10 was realistic and it was more of the, the gambling community, the outside prognostication that was farther down on this team, but they also weren't watching training camp. And I needed training camp to get me to that point because I didn't know what it

was going to look like with all the new guys out there and what Darnold was going to look like. But after he looked competent, if not really good in training camp, it's like, okay, well, this could happen. This could be a competitive team. Let's see. Eric says, my preseason win total guess was seven. Now it's 10. Lots of games left. Yeah. So the other day, Kevin Seifer suggested that it was possible that the Vikings could only get to 10 wins and he got assaulted in the comment section. And yes, it does only mean five and seven. When we talk about these predictions, how many games they're going to win, it's always fun to see how the wheels turn. So if you're talking about range of outcomes, there is a range

of outcomes where they only win 10 games. And we have seen this before with the Vikings going five and O and then not making good on the second half of the season, but things would have to go really wrong because the division games, the remaining division games, you have two against Detroit, two against Chicago and one against green Bay. So that's five of your remaining 12 games. If you even win two of them, and then you have the whole AFC South to play, there is almost no way that you even win one out of three. I mean, even two out of three would be a disappointment against the AFC South teams. If you run the table there, that's it. That's five wins just between being average against the North or four wins. Even if a disappointment is mixed in,

it's hard to see them struggling that much, but it's always possible. I mean, the NFL is weird like that. Injuries happen, things bounce up and down, but I would put them much more 12 right now with the way that this season has come together. I would go much more 12, but it sounds like, I mean, when somebody says that, it just, it sounds like you're, you're nervous about it, about where this is going to go, which I don't see anything wrong with. When you see that last game and you see a little bit of antsiness from Darnold, I could see some antsiness. And also when you're talking about, or some anxiousness, I mean,

or when you're talking about overall the NFC North after today, that, yeah, we're a long way from done, friends. We are a long way from done. There is almost, I mean, there's more than double. Think about this. It feels like we've already lived a lifetime of football, right? There's more than double the games left to go. So a lot of things can happen. I look at this though, as long as Sam Darnold stays healthy as much more of a 12 win type of team, a seven and five the rest of the way, because there will be tough games. There will be all these games against the NFC North. I don't think it's going to be perfect, but if they get to 12 wins, what a huge success that is. You go into the playoffs as one of the best teams in the NFC, and it could certainly be higher than

that. I think that's the most realistic bar to set right now because you just can't ask every game to go as well as these first five did. But if they're over 12, then they could go in as a Super Bowl favorite. I think if you beat Detroit, I would up that to 13 if you beat Detroit, because then you're talking about having just run away with a lot of, against a lot of teams that had super high expectations. And Detroit's going to come in here as the hottest team in the NFL that everyone is talking about their last two weeks. Unreal on offense.

Great test. Really great test. Purple Kool-Aid. Darnold has to distribute the ball to all the playmakers, not just focus on Jefferson to beat the Lions and not hold on to the ball forever. Exactly right. Exactly right. I don't want to see another game where Jalen Naylor is not getting the football. Jalen Naylor needs to be a big part of this. It has to be, it has to be underneath stuff or a focus on him for

certain plays out of the backfield stuff to tie Chandler. They can't let that slip away as part of the passing game. And I also would just really like to see, I don't believe Hockinson will be back, but I would really like to see Johnny Munt and Josh Oliver catch five or six yard passes sometimes. Hey, it's first and 10, six yards to Johnny Munt. Bang, fall forward. Now you're in second and short run play action. You got all sorts of options. Let's see. Eric comes in the hero of the day with the fantasy question. Thank you, Eric. I had my homes on the bench due to the bye week but i'm considering keeping baker mayfield in my starting lineup

am i crazy well allow me first to say because you have asked the fantasy question that this show is presented by underdog fantasy the easiest place to play fantasy sports and also the fastest growing fantasy app in the industry. For the first time this week, I had been doing only pick-ems for the games leading up to them because that's what I find to be the most fun on Underdog. For me, I love looking at numbers and figuring out, oh, you know, what kind of stats is this guy going to have in an individual game? But I actually drafted a fantasy team this week, had Jaden Daniels got disappointed by Amon Ross, St. Brown disappointed a little bit by Jameer Gibbs too, for such a big game, but you

can draft on underdog fantasy, a fantasy team just for that week leading up to it. A lot of fun did it this week. Uh, that was cool to do that draft. I think it was five bucks to get into a draft. So, you know, good stuff there. And if you want to sign up, give it a shot. Purple is the code that you use. P-U-R-P-L-P to claim your special pick and first time deposit offer up to $1,000 in bonus cash. Helps the show if you get a chance to do that. Must be 18 or older.

Terms apply. Concerned with your play? Call 1-800-GAMBLER or visit ncpgambling.org. So again, just go to Underdog Fantasy. Very easy to sign up. Use that code purple and play along. To your question, Eric, you are 100% correct for using Baker Mayfield in your starting lineup the rest of the way. Now I know that the New Orleans Saints don't have a great defense, but Baker Mayfield looks great. He is balling with that team. He might even know he is playing better than he played last year. Chris Godwin with a huge touchdown today. They're running the ball a little bit better than they ran it last year. So there's

less pressure on him, more play action stuff. He is confidently navigating the pocket, making plays out of the pocket. And here's another key point. The Tampa Bay defense is not that good. So they're going to play shootouts. Big stats are probably going to go to Baker. Mahomes is going to win more, but that's not the goal of your fantasy team. I love the way Baker Mayfield played today. Spencer Rattler, a tough day for him a little bit. Started out pretty good, but it got tougher as it went along. But Baker Mayfield, I think he's going to keep doing this. We now have a big enough sample size of seeing that, that I think he will put up big stats. So great question. And thank you for that. Uh, let's see.

Zoomer Kev says, uh, Tom Brady said he would love to play quarterback for the lions right now. I doubt he'd say the same thing for the Patriots. Yeah, you're right. Uh, big shocker, by the way, big shocker that the new England Patriots organization is not as stable without Tom Brady. Who would have ever seen it coming? Who would have ever seen it coming? Uh, Sam timber concerns about our NFC North opponents. This seems like it's going to be a four team battle. Well, I sounded concerned earlier and I was called a worried warrior. So I don't know. Uh, you know, it's not to me when your team is good and everything about the Vikings statistics, their offense statistically is solid across the board, if not a little bit better than some of their numbers because they've been winning so much. So when I look at just for example, here's

a good stat success rate compares what you did on a play versus the down in distance. So if it's first and 10 and you get six yards, it's a successful play. The Vikings are top 10 in successful play rate on offense. They've been good there. They have been absolutely elite on defense. And I don't see that changing, save for a rash of crazy injuries. They have every position across the board, smart veteran proven players. So this start to the season and they've played good teams. So the start to the season does not look fake to me on defense. So when you say concerns, well, if you went individually, what the biggest concern is for the Vikings, number one is that Detroit's offense is going to be so unstoppable that the defense element

doesn't matter. It's that Jordan love may snap back into it and be that elite quarterback that can make plays out of structure. Even if he doesn't diagnose something and go on a winning streak. And if you're talking about Chicago, you know what it is. It's that Caleb Williams, by the time you face him, looks like a star quarterback. Those are the concerns. But really, for me, when all the numbers say the Vikings are one of the best teams, if not the best team in the NFL,

I just look at it as things that I can't wait to see play out. I can't wait to see how it's going to play out with the Vikings in Detroit. I can't wait to see how things are going to play out when they face Green Bay again, or when they see Chicago finally. To tell you the truth, and I know a lot of you guys have been there before, going to Soldier Field is not the most fun trip. You think, oh, it's only an hour and a half away in a flight. That's true. But you spend more time in a taxi or an Uber getting to the stadium with all the traffic. And year after year, we go to Soldier Field going,

great, another slop fest here at the end of a mediocre season. Well, not anymore. Now this is about to be an exciting Uber ride. They're stuck in traffic. Cause I'll be like, can't wait to see this game. I think, I just think that's how you should be looking at today is these teams being this good makes for a fascinating and exciting time. Every NFC North matchup, it ramps up. And after beating green Bay in green Bay already, that should increase that kind of feeling.

I think, um, from even where it was that, that it should be even more so where you're talking about like, all right, this, this should be, uh,

this should really be something. So, um, uh, now, this should really be something. So, um, now I do have another ad read. I almost forgot about you guys almost let me forget about it, but you got to remember this show is also presented by us cellular. So let me silence my phone real quick. So I can tell you that us days at U.S. Cellular is back. Exclusive offers just for customers, just to say thanks. Right now, you'll get $1,200 off any phone plus $400 off any tablet. Amazing, right? But my family is so excited about their new devices, they keep texting me during the show. They're all about Us Days deals like $1,200 off any phone, $400 off any tablet.

Terms apply. Visit uscellular.com for details. So there you go. Uh, I am sweating now after so much NFC North talk. So I'm gonna need a little diet, Dr. Pepper. How fun is this? How fun is this? Five and old Vikings lions coming in here with one loss off a huge win a lot a lot of great stuff to talk about uh sam timber if we had seven losses it would be four divisional games seahawks cardinals and an unlikely nfc south upset yeah the rest of I don't, I don't really want to throw this one out there, but this team has been playing very well. The Atlanta Falcons, I think the Vikings will beat the Falcons. They have just been playing really well the last couple of weeks. They might be, when you look at the Viking schedule, let me, let me cross check. Let me cross check this. I'm going to check

this with the Viking schedule and just see if I have this right. Is the toughest game the rest of the year on the Viking schedule actually that's not in the division against Atlanta? It might be. So here, here's the non-division games that the Vikings have the rest of the season at LA, which I don't think will be easy. That that's a nominee, but they're banged up. They haven't been a good team this year. Indianapolis at home. Absolutely. A game you got to win at Jacksonville at Tennessee. Talk. That's why I'm saying enjoy this next, this next two weeks where you got Detroit and LA because Indianapolis, Jacksonville, Tennessee is not a lot of juice. Uh, then Arizona, Atlanta, Seattle, those are

the only games remaining outside of the division. And Seattle just does not look very good to me. These last couple of weeks, you saw, I talk about a team that beats some bad teams. I mean, that's a team that only beat bad teams and then got run out of the building. The last couple of games, I think the toughest game left for the Vikings non-division is actually Atlanta. Uh, AS says,

uh, honestly, the defense has surprised me more than Darnold. I thought Darnold could be competent average with these pieces, but I figured defense would be closer to top 15. You know where my mind changed AS is after they signed Gilmore because at those joint practices of which I've brought up many times to, you know, dunk on Cleveland or pimp the home run or whatever. Hope nobody asks about my preseason Superbowl pick. One of my two teams preseason Superbowl pick looks good. Houston. I won't

talk about the other one, but I think that we came out of there and I did two podcasts from Cleveland with Alec Lewis and with Dane Mizutani. And we both talked about this defense looks amazing. They just need that one more piece. And if they get that one more piece, then, then I'm convinced that they could drive the bus here. And that's really been the case. Stefan Gilmore has just been terrific. He really has just, just been terrific. He can follow any receiver that you need him to. And he's going to have a lot of challenges this week. I wonder how they go against Amon Ross St.

Brown because they use so much motion and misdirection, but Gilmore is that guy. He's that piece. Because if you had a Caleb Evans out there, it just would not have been as reliable. And no matter how good your pass rush, you can attack no matter how deceptive your secondary, you can attack if there are multiple weak links and you see teams going after a buyer Murphy jr. But I think you're fairly comfortable with that. Murphy is not the best lockdown corner. He's not the biggest guy, but he is skilled enough to make a play on the ball. He he'll be okay. If they attack him over and over again, he will survive, but they don't have anybody who's not going to survive the same

way a Caleb Evans did last year. Uh, let's see. Lore says, uh, why didn't the Vikings draw plays for Jalen Naylor? Like the 97 yarder for Justin, he's called speedy for a reason. There were a couple of plays that were on tape that were clearly supposed to be aimed his way. Uh, and they, the ball just didn't get there. Uh, one of them was because of pressure. Uh, there was a couple other ones that I thought he should have looked to Jalen Naylor and he ended up going somewhere else in the football. It's got to be a priority. And I keep thinking about how that number three wide receiver is such a cheat code. Because, okay, you can double Jefferson, and you could double Addison, but you just can't double everybody. And Naylor is so quick and has become

a very good route runner that he is the option that's always going to have a mismatch, a safety, a nickel corner, somebody who's a little less skilled against route running. And there's opportunities there every game for him. But the one thing that I, I mean, you mentioned the 97 yarder. I look at it as I want him to catch an eight yard pass and run with it. I want him to catch something underneath short, a slant, a screen, something to get him the football and get him moving in space. They just didn't have a lot of that in the last game. And I think it hurt him.

Sean says Vikings fans or hard luck fans of any sports team will always have the fear of something bad is coming especially when there hasn't been that many playoff wins well you know we could spend we could certainly spend a lot of time on that sean i mean that's the the minnesota sports curses if you will the many many things that have gone wrong. But I've always stuck to this as long as I have covered the team, that the things that have happened to the Vikings organization are so wildly improbable that I completely get it. I do. I mean, we could go through all of them. You know, he hasn't missed in two years. Whoops, wide left. I mean, you guys know all of them that have happened, but I don't believe what happens in the past

impacts the future. The Red Sox won, the Cubs won. This is a winning team that is always competitive that eventually one day we'll have it work out. To your point, you're exactly right. That people, until it is the trophy in the hand of Sam Darnold raised over his head, that I think Vikings fans are not going to believe it's real. Um, but I also don't think you can live in that world though. There's just too

much awesome stuff to happen like right here, right now, too many great games, too many great matchups, all those types of things, uh, that are right in front of the Vikings to be worried about what the, I mean, their kicker is really good, but to be worried about what a kicker might do in the NFC championship, like put that aside. It's kind of like how the off season stuff has made me feel very itchy. Every time people ask about, well, hey, is McCarthy still going to be the quarterback or what are they going to do to fix this next off season? I'm like, ah, it took a long time to get here to have a good season. I don't, I don't really want to worry about what's going to happen

months from now. Vikings Lions. Let's think about that. Kirk used to have a good saying, got to give him credit for it. He would say, I want to be where my feet are, Kirk Cousins. And he was so good at it. He was so good at not getting caught up on whether he was a free agent after the year or anything like that, just played football. We should all do that. We should all just watch football and see what happens. Not worry about, well, you know, they had this drop pass in 1987 where they could have tied the game against Washington, the NFC championship.

Don't worry about that right now. Let's think about Vikings Lions in the matchup that's coming up. That'll be cool. Zoomer Kev says, I saw a video where a 30-ish year old dude did a 40-yard dash to determine a fantasy draft and the majority of them pulled a hamstring. What's it like getting old? So I do a fair amount of running myself as a 30-ish year old dude, actually closer to 40 now. But I would be worried about that as well. I would be worried about a potential hamstring injury if I was doing it.

Is that the fantasy question? At some point, it happens to everybody, man. So you may be a Zoomer, but it'll come for you. It's like the Grandpa Simpsonpson it'll happen to you but i think i could run a 40 without pulling a hammy i would just have to warm up those people should have warmed up i think that's how you avoid that uh skull city blues all three of the vikings rivals had a pretty good day offensively if not uh they just to add a phenomenal day all three teams uh will quacey go out and make a move for a defensive stud to slow our opponent's role i think that they really should um and uh brandivore has the same question, your opinion on trades they should make.

I'm in on this. I am in on this idea. Truly. I am in on the idea that you have a great division with a bunch of good quarterbacks and good offenses, and you need to be concerned about the bears. The lions are elite. The Packers very well could be elite. They, they could, uh, we haven't seen multiple weeks of Jordan Love there this year, but Jacobs has been good. Their receivers are good. Romeo Dobbs finally got over himself and decided to play today and caught two touchdowns. Christian Watson caught a touchdown. There is so much talent in this division on offense that the number one defense for the Vikings is good enough, but can it be even better? Can there be even one more piece that would give them the best possible chance to slow down these teams? Because all of a sudden you need that home playoff game, right? You need to win the division.

You don't want to travel to green Bay. You don't want to travel to Detroit. You saw the atmosphere in Detroit last year. You do not want to travel to Detroit. If you can avoid it when you're talking about the playoffs. So they absolutely do need to add as much talent as they possibly can. Even if it takes a first round pick, you just don't get that many of these years. And if they had no cap space for the future, then I would say, okay, guys, they need that first round pick. They have a lot of cap space for the future and they can push money out. This, this is what you came for. If you're Kwesi D'Affolmenta and Kevin O'Connell,

you didn't come here to kind of slowly competitive rebuild. You came here to eventually build a team that could compete for a championship. It just happened a year faster than you thought. Act accordingly. Mark says, why does nobody talk about Shaq Griffin? He's been a beast. Great signing. You're right.

So far, he's been very good. And that's the thing is that they really don't have weaknesses on this defense. That's the key point. Ergo Gray says, do you think this is Darnold reverting? Do you think KOC will point it out to him and stop it? It is on KOC to slow the reverting process. But, you know, I think a big percentage of the reverting is really just the Jets defense is great.

It was a mix of things. It was the right guard getting beat several times fast and pressure up front. It was great coverage at times on Justin Jefferson. And it was also Sam Darnold just not pulling the trigger sometimes. There were a few plays where he dropped back and he kind of reached back to throw it, or he looked like he was cocking his shoulders to throw it. And then he just didn't as if he didn't truly believe in the throw.

And then he got sacked or he had to throw it away. I think that it's part of who Darnold has been through his career, that he doesn't always trust his eyes, or he doesn't always see things quite right, or he makes a decision where he's going with the football before he sees how it plays out. I think the greatest example of that was the Aaron Jones interception, where he tossed it up to him in the back of the end zone and got a pick by Xavier McKinney. Jefferson was wide open on the other side. Jones wasn't really open. There were three defenders in the area and he just goes, whoop, I'm putting it up. And that really was not a

good decision. It looked predetermined. Sometimes I think that happens to Sam Darnold and what KOC has been, I think pretty good at is running a play action with an easy crossing route to get Darnold back going, to just lock them back in. And I think that there has to be a little more of that even on the underneath stuff. But what I've noticed is I don't know that Darnold is the best at looking at the middle of the field and always being able to pick apart where everybody's going to be in the middle of the field and always being able to pick apart where everybody's going to be in the middle of the field. So some of this stuff might have to just be a little five yard out route to the tight end. Just get them, just get them going. I think that there can be

more of that from KOC, but also if he plays like he did against the jets against the bad defense, well, then I would be more concerned, but it was against a great defense in London with some rain, just not, you know, not ideal conditions. Uh, let's see. AS says love KOC, but it might actually take a blown lead in a loss for him to change up. He says he needs to look in the mirror, then does the same thing forever a quarterback. So I decided on this after the other night. Well, wait, morning after the other mornings game in London is that Kevin O'Connell is not going to change his approach of being almost crazily aggressive. So when you're up 17, he's probably going to go for the kill shot.

And if you look back at the 2021 Matthew Stafford Rams, there was a run of three games where Matthew Stafford was horrendous. And I think probably I sat on the show at the time, there's Matt Stafford, that inconsistent wild Matthewew stafford but at the end of the day they had to be on the right side of the variance that comes along with being aggressive it's kind of like being a three-point shooting team the minnesota links lost today shooting six for 20 for threes you're you live and die by the three you live and die by the aggressiveness and that's what he's going to be willing to do so we should should always count on that. But I think that Mike has it right for my suggestion is not to stop being aggressive. It's Mike says, love to see 25, 30 short passes, screens out routes mixed in. Uh, yeah. I mean,

that's, that's the thing that what I would like to see is smartly aggressive. If you've ever heard the saying, I think it was, why am I blanking? I should not be blanking on this. The, uh, the old UCLA coach, why am I not thinking of it? But the, uh, the legendary UCLA men's basketball coach, someone will tell me, but there was a saying where he would say it was like, be quick, but don't rush or something like that. And I feel the same way about be aggressive, but not crazy. You don't have to on third and 15 look for a 25 yard throw. You don't have to, when you're up 28 to seven, look for a fade route to a running back, be aggressive and not crazy. That's, that's what I would like to see, but I just don't think he's going to change. Uh, he's, he's probably always going to have that mentality.

Sean says a strong unity in the locker room and a lot of great leaders to block out any noise from media or fans worries. I don't believe that media or fans worries ever impacts anybody. There's probably something to knowing what's being said on the outside can get in a team's head a little bit, but not in this case. I mean, you're talking about a team that's five and oh, and clearly media and fans worries that they were going to win six games didn't impact them at all. Yeah, I've never bought into that at all. I've never seen that as any kind of excuse for a team that they let stuff like what media is saying about projections or how many wins or how good the other teams are. I don't think that's ever really impacted a team. It's probably when individuals have certain issues and then it can be

perpetuated by what's being said on the outside. So if there's a wide receiver and this is not happening presently, but if there's a wide receiver who looks frustrated and then everyone on TV says, yeah, he's right. It's the coach's fault. Maybe that leaks inside of a locker room, but I don't know when it comes to like wins and losses. Um, I, you know, I was talking to my friend, uh, Sage Rosenfels the other day, hoping to have Sage on the show at some point again. And he was telling me that, uh, Nick Saban used to tell his players, even when he was in the NFL, Hey, if we win the media, he'll say good things about us.

And if we lose, they'll say bad things about us. And that's probably fair. And I thought what a mature approach from Mr. Saban to his team. And that's, that's how it usually is. I mean, when you have a quarterback that was going into this season, who'd never proven it then, okay, well, he's going to have lower expectations. You just have to go prove it. And so far he has. Purple Kool-Aid says, I don't believe Darnold has played a full season in the NFL due to injury or being benched. Is that a concern with Mullins and the Wings?

I mean, yes, because he has been banged up a couple times already this season. He left the last game. He got twisted up a little bit against Green Bay. He left the last game. He got twisted up a little bit against Green Bay. He left the Texans game briefly. Every quarterback's going to take their hits. Darnold does hold onto the ball too long. There's no doubt about that. If you look at the pressures he takes, he does try to scramble a little too much and stuff like that. So, you know, I think that it is a worry, but when it comes to backup quarterbacks, there's no backup quarterback who's any good outside of Joe Flacco. There really

isn't any core backup quarterback who you would really trust. At least, you know, that, I mean, give Nick Mullins this, he played in what three games last year and they barely lost to Cincinnati, barely lost to Detroit. So it's not like you can't be competitive at all with Nick Mullins. He has won some games, but any, any team, any team with the starting quarterback is always going to be worried about injury. It's to your point though, it is him holding onto the ball and trying to do some scrambles when he should just throw it away. That has worried me at times. Oh no, I shoot. I was a worry warrior. I will say concern for the quarterback's health is always a worry in every NFL city. Uh, skull city blues. Has anyone done a deep dive on what JJ McCarthy is doing with

virtual reality to simulate these games. How does it work? How many games has he simulated? Yeah, I don't know about that. I don't know exactly how it works. I think somebody did a story on it a few years ago. Maybe it was Courtney, but I don't remember exactly. I think it takes practice. I think it's practice tape. I don't think it's... Is it simulating the games? Because I think it takes practice. I think it's practice tape. I don't think it's simu, is it simulating the games? Cause I thought it was practice. They put a camera or maybe this is something different. Maybe this is something different they're doing. So maybe it does simulate the games. I'm not sure, but I know that they're putting a camera on Sam Darnold.

So McCarthy can watch what Sam Darnold is looking at in practice. But I imagine the virtual reality works exactly how you think it is, where it puts him in the helmet. And I would guess that it uses the little dots to show where the defenders are and that's what he's seeing. And then he, I don't know, throws a ball. I'm not really sure yet. You'll have to look it up, but I haven't, I haven't asked anyone how exactly that works. Uh, Zoomer Kev, Jordan Love throws so many passes like he's playing 500 or jackpot at recess. Very funny when he throws a bad pick, not funny when the receiver catches it. That's another thing where it's the aggressive approach and you kind of live or die with that. Yep. It definitely is with Jordan love. And that's

really what is, uh, I would say concerning to the Vikings about playing against Jordan love and the way he's playing, because if he gets hot and a lot of those are hitting, then he is tough to be, but you saw the Vikings can also confuse him at times, turn the ball over against him at times. Uh, but he's, when they play him again, he's going to make up for a great matchup. And that might be another game that we get to down the road to determine a spot in the playoffs or something like that, but have been pretty high on how he's played the last couple of weeks, especially today. Very good. Okay. We might be in jump the shark mode here when a Tang asks if

it's time to bring back Adrian Peterson. Um, I'm going to say probably not. Oh, John wouldn't. Of course, John wouldn't. I'm sorry, guys. I forgot just, uh, too much in football mode. Let's see. Uh, Lou says had the same injury as Hutchinson and Lewis seen broken tibia above the ankle. Your leg never feels the same. I could do 90% before, but never feels the same. as Hutchinson and Lewis seen broken tibia above the ankle. Your leg never feels the same. I could do 90% before, but never feels the same. Yeah, I imagine.

I mean, that injury is just looks just miserable. If Darnold goes, goes down trade for Flacco or Dalton. Yeah, no, I, yeah,

they would have to, but let's not, let's not get into that. Let's not get into that. I do agree with you, but I don't, I don't get into that. Let's not get into that. I do agree with you, but I don't, I don't even want to go down that road. Uh, Tucker says, could the Wilfs do something unorthodox to keep Flores co-head coach? We need him to stay. Uh, no, you can't. I mean, you definitely can't make him the co-head coach. You can't undercut Kevin O'Connell in any way.

I mean, O'Connell, O'Connell has done such a masterful job and I really mean it. It is so impossible to manage the sheer number of human beings that you have to manage as a head coach. It is something you can never simulate. You can never pretend to figure out it's impossible. And yet here'svin o'connell making it look fairly easy you got to manage the defensive side you got to manage the special teams you got to manage the front office and the the contracts and the players and things going on with them and everything that goes on in the building it does a great job of it but you need him to be the the guy it can't be the guy and his friend it's got to be the guy um but i also don the guy and his friend. It's got to be the guy.

But I also don't think that there's anything unorthodox they have to do. They could give him a raise. But Brian Flores, in my mind, is very unlikely to get a head coaching job and really seems to like it here. It's not a bad thing to have your coach and his defensive coordinator just in lockstep and stay together for a long time. That's how you win a championship sometimes. I mean, Josh McDaniels and Bill Belichick, McDaniels was not a head coach. He was a great OC and Brady certainly helped, but he, but he even got Mac Jones to have a good year. Bill Belichick was the head coach. He managed the whole organization and then his guy focused on his part of the ball. And I think that's probably going to happen with Brian Flores.

But I mean, I really don't know. We're a long way away. Mike says, what percentage is the offense responsible for keeping the defense for being gassed? High, high percentage. I think the last two weeks they've done a very poor job of keeping their own defense off the field. And it only speaks to how fantastic the defense is that they got away with those two games. And the defense, like just for example, I mean, it certainly doesn't help to get strip sacked on your side of the field or throw an interception on your side of the field. And the defense came up with those big plays at the end against Green Bay and the Jets. They weren't, obviously they weren't as good against Green Bay in the second half, but they came through with the biggest moments to stop Green Bay. You cannot ask

them to always be out there for that many plays. That statistic about them being second in the league in plays on defense is not a good sign, especially with a veteran defense. You do have guys with injury histories. This is, this is a Kevin O'Connell objective for the second half, if you will, or the last two thirds of the season, three fourths. How far are we? Two, two thirds, 34, whatever percentage, 68% of the season to still go. It is an objective to keep his defense off the field. Uh, Brent, we just need to play close game against the Lions and not get blown out. We will lose a game this season. So this might be the one could be, could be, I mean, as far as what they need against the Lions, if they play a great game and come up

short on a last second field goal, we're not going to change how we feel about anything. But as far as what a win could mean, a win to me would say, this is the best team in the NFL, hands down. That is a pretty big difference. I don't think it's quite as simple as just, well, hey, you know, don't get blown out. Just stay with the Lions, and that's going to be a good thing. That's fine. I won't change my opinion on the Vikings being good.

It's like, if they lose close, okay, it happens. If they win, then it's sort of like it's on with this team it's already on but then it's really on if they beat this team uh zoomer kev commanders kicked with the uh extra point when they were down 14 and scored a touchdown to make it seven with about nine minutes left for the fourth quarter isn't that a go for two moment according to the analytics? Yes, it is. When you're down 14 in the fourth quarter, you should go for two. And it's, it's really not, it's not even analytics as much as just take a look at it logically, because if you think about it, your goal is to win the game, not tie. So if you can get to a situation where you add a potential outcome, where you could win, which is if you convert the two point conversion, then your chances of winning

are higher because you added an outcome where you could win as opposed to just a time. So that's really why that comes up. And then if you miss the two point conversion, you still have a chance to tie the game. So not all is lost. And there's a 50% chance of a two point conversion being converted. So if you miss the second one, you still have a 50% chance of converting the second one. That's kind of how that works in short form. There's been a bunch of articles written about it, but Dan Quinn failed that test. He should have gone for two. Yep. It's not a tragedy. Sometimes people act like, Oh my gosh, this coach must be completely crazy if he didn't do it. But I think it's a pretty simple one when you're trying to play to win that. If you convert it, you, all you need is one more touchdown. You win the game. That's

what you're really going for. Guys, what a day. What a day of football. Add college football to it from yesterday. Gophers get a crazy win. All those, man, the Alabama game was nuts. The Penn State game was crazy. They had their tight end snap the ball and then threw them a touchdown. It's been a heck of a weekend to be off but we are back into full intensity mode which

means that uh be recording a podcast with brian murphy tomorrow morning monday morning murph continues his reaction to this week's games and then tomorrow night manny hill picks the schedule live on YouTube. And even though the Vikings haven't changed, the National Football League most certainly has. So it is going to be a fascinating week leading up to it. Guarantee I'll get you a Detroit Lions guest. Haven't booked one yet.

Those guys have been busy in Dallas, but I'll get you a Detroit Lions guest on the show. Trevor Sycamore for PFF is going to be on this week to analyze how strong this team is and their outlook going forward. So much fun to come here and I can't wait. So thanks everybody for watching. And tomorrow night, kind of same time, we'll be on, taking more of your questions, comments, thoughts.

We'll be in the locker room tomorrow, a little bit different schedule. So we'll be in the locker room tomorrow, talking to players about all this and we will go from there so thank you everybody for a great conversation as always and we will see you tomorrow football