Purple Insider - a Minnesota Vikings and NFL podcast - How many wins will it take for the Vikings to win the NFC North?

Episode Date: October 24, 2022

Matthew Coller and Jonathan Harrison break down Sunday's action with a Vikings spin, including how poorly the Green Bay Packers played and how low the bar for the NFC North crown could potentially be this year. Do the Vikings even need double digits to win the North? Let's compare the Vikings to every current playoff team. Plus how the Vikings' schedule looks now after another week. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Purple Insider presented by Liquid Death. Go to liquiddeath.com slash insider and learn about the Tallboy can, which actually has water. Find out where you can get it near you at liquiddeath.com slash insider. Hello, welcome to another episode of Purple Insider. The Vikings didn't play and yet somehow they won on Sunday with the Green Bay Packers falling to whom other than Taylor Heineke.

Matthew Collar here along with Jonathan Harrison, producer slash host slash whatever he does on social media slash graphics designer. There's other stuff I could keep going. And also the co-host of our Hot Routes show, by the way, which we created a separate feed for. Spell it with a Z if you want to listen to us talk about the entire league once a week, Hot Routes. But we're going to do this somewhat hot route style. I've written down five questions, Jonathan, to talk about from this Sunday's action. But the first thing I want to say is just woof. I mean, I have long felt that I am cursed that every Sunday that's free from the Vikings,

that if the Vikings play on a Monday night football or Thursday night or on their bi-week, that it's always the worst games that I get on Fox and CBS. And people will always tweet me like, Oh, get the other package. Like, but I'm usually doing the Vikings. Like I, so I shouldn't get the, like the whole, the whole thing, but it didn't matter what NFL package you had today. You saw nothing but bad football and what a day of just, I mean, those, those nut cases who say college football is better than the NFL are still nuts, but college football yesterday was

more entertaining than what we saw today. Yeah. It really goes to show you the power of NFL red zone and how much it dresses up the NFL product to make it look like, oh, it's exciting football everywhere all the time. All 60 minutes of the game is just complete entertainment and joy when it's just like, can we just get on with this already? It's like a bad episode of a show that you're getting for most of those games. And every once in a while you'll get that breaking bad train episode, but most of it is just really bad. It was really bad. And even the Kansas city, San Francisco game that started out great ended up really bad. Uh, and aside from that i mean we saw zach wilson i just was looking at this stat on twitter he won the game without getting more than like five first downs passing or something i mean like that's that's what's going on in the league at this moment this is probably the worst passing season that we have seen league wide and so this will be of course a subject of some of

our questions so why don't we just dive in to our breakdown of how everything impacted the Minnesota Vikings and I think we need to start out with this how many wins is it going to take for the Vikings to win the NFC North now that the Packers are three and four and what a shameful three and four it was I mean the way the game ended with them throwing the ball around Rodgers with an illegal forward pass where his offensive lineman tries to block it like a hockey goalie it was I mean just a mess Washington's defense isn't even good and yet they looked like the 85 Bears against Rodgers. And I think it really says something that this is the first time in Rodgers' career, just for you anti-QB wins people,

first time in his career that he's ever been below 500 at this point. I'm sure that's a coincidence with how good he's been over his career, but also says something. There were dudes dropping passes, people running wrong routes like it really is one of the worst supporting casts in the entire NFL I think they changed their offensive line by

four players in one week like that as much as I'm sure Vikings fans are enjoying watching Rodgers struggle it really is a horrendous supporting cast Detroit and Chicago are not even in this conversation so how many wins will the Packers have that the will create the bar for the Vikings to get over so the way I decided this answer I didn't even look at the Viking schedule for this one because I wanted to know how many wins I think the Packers could get out of the rest of their schedule and you look at their schedule they got the Billsills, Cowboys, Titans, Eagles, and the Dolphins. Teams that you would think might and should probably be better than the Packers. So the rest of that means they've probably got, if I'm remembering my math correctly, they've got probably five more,

six more wins left in the season, maybe, if they're lucky, and they can pull out some of these closer games against teams like Minnesota. If they can pull out a win, if they can find a way to win against a bad Detroit team. And we saw how they've played against some bad teams already this season. It hasn't looked that great. So it's all these, it, it come, it came down to me to how many wins that I think the Packers could get if they played good football from here on out, which nothing this season has proven to me that they can play good football for, for a whole 60 minutes and get a win. So it, I think they can get at most nine if they're, if they get lucky in some of these closer games. So that gives me the, the belief that the Vikings need 10 wins and they will be the 2022 NFC North champions. See, I, I thought about putting the number in eight after today.

I mean, it's Washington with a backup quarterback. Like they were two and four coming in. They had not been able to throw the ball very effectively. Their defense was an absolute disaster. And then all of a sudden is like looking great against a green Bay. It's not just no weapons. It's also weapons that are hurt. Sammy Watkins does not look like the old version of Sammy Watkins. He still looked banged up. He came up kind of ginger on a deep route today. Randall Cobb is not playing and that looks like a serious injury. Christian Watson is also hurt. I mean, they are down to Amari Rogers, who is a horrendous football player. He dropped a wide open long pass. He

dropped the fumble or a punt. He fumbled a punt. I mean, he just, every time I've ever seen him, he has done nothing but bad things. It's usually dropping a punt, but today he mixed in a wide open pass that would have been potentially a touchdown or at least a long gain and just drop that right off his hands as well. So they are down to dudes who might not even belong in the league. And the only answer probably doesn't exist for them, which is to trade for a top notch wide receiver. But when you think about it, like how many are available, it's not many teams don't like to part ways with top receivers. Even Carolina has said about DJ Moore, like we're not doing that you can have this guy

or that guy christian mccaffrey for how much uh and uh by the way that didn't make any difference today in san francisco so good luck with spending that much on a running back but uh which i'll never understand people who defend trades like that like i i got like christian mccaffrey he's been a fun player but a running back for a team that has made anyone and everyone into a great running back? To give away, what, a second, third, and fourth? I mean, what are you thinking? But that's another topic. The point just being that how would the Packers even go about acquiring a receiver who's going to be a true difference maker

and then acclimate that person to playing with a quarterback who's going to be a true difference maker and then acclimate that person to playing with a quarterback who's traditionally very difficult to play with in Aaron Rodgers. Ellen Lazard got beat up again today. I think they're a seven win team. I think just based on their history, we almost refuse to admit that that's possible, but go back a couple of years to 2018. It looks very similar where Rodgers was not the same. The supporting cast was not the same. And they don't have a defense or a running game that's going to get them anywhere. And that's what everybody was kind of relying on when picking the Packers to win the division.

And I think that's fair that you would say based on the history and what they had on the running backs and defense that, sure, they're going to be able to kind of ground and pound and then ask for enough out of Rodgers and these other weapons. But even the guys who are supposed to be decent, your Watkins, Cobb, Lazard, I mean, they're just banged up. And sorry, Romeo Dobbs is just not good enough. So that team is in peril. And I see, I just see them losing some games.

They're not supposed to lose because they did today. And they'll do that again. And I thought that Rogers did have a cryptic. And you tell me what you think of this. He had a cryptic quote after the game where he said something like, yeah, we really needed this to happen. And it was like, what does he mean? Needed what's like needed to prove his point to the coach that they need to simplify things

needed to prove his point to brian gutekunst that they should have drafted a wide receiver instead of jordan love years ago needed this to prove that they need to trade for one like i don't know what he means but that's not a good football team and i just don't see any like shining light around the corner unless they beat buffalo next week, which would be extremely shocked. Yeah, this is almost screaming, what does that quote mean? I mean, we're bringing that into this version of Hot Routes. But yeah, that screams a quarterback who's angry that the general manager and the front office for the Green Bay Packers over the past couple of years

have just ignored what one of the best players in the NFL has been telling them. I need help. You cannot just rely on me to create magic because if you look at the rest of their schedule that they've already played, they're very narrowly almost one in five at this point in the season. They barely got a win over the Tampa Bay Buccaneers who are looking bad this season. They barely got it. They had to go to overtime and get a three-point win over the New England Patriots. They're very close to being a one-in-five football team at this point in the season, which would be absolutely shocking considering how many people thought that this couldn't happen because Aaron Rodgers coming off back-to-back MVP seasons, back-to-back 13-3 seasons, and

now it's looking completely awful, especially if he leaves in the offseason. I know it's still too early to look at the offseason and ahead, but if he lives in the offseason, this team's going to be really bad for the foreseeable future, you feel. But it seems like this team is on a downward spiral, and everybody's like, well, to answer your wide receiver question, well, they can just bring in Odell Beckham Jr. That guy's not going to a team who's three and four. He's going, he's hunting for aham jr that guy's not going to a team who's three and four he's going he's hunting for a super bowl again he's only going to a team that's going to compete for a super bowl and who can bring him in to go to play in the playoffs for the latter half of the season not a team that needs him to help them get over the get back into the win column that's that the odell beckham jr and to green bay uh dream is gone it's truly gone at this point i

think i i think you're completely right unless they pull off a couple wins in a row and if you're odell like why do you have to hurry like i don't have to hurry you could play six games for a team earn a couple million bucks chase another championship like there's no he can wait to see how the landscape plays out over the next few weeks and that even does and i don't know if they're actually a contender for him or not, but it does involve the Vikings in that conversation. And in my opinion, if the Vikings were to get to seven and one and Beckham is not signed

anywhere, create that cap space, like just, just, just go for it because you, and we'll get to more on this, but just the, the way that the NFC has played out,

there's just very few teams standing in your way and when you can almost and and nobody should guarantee anything regarding the vikings ever because they're the vikings but it's and when you sit here right now and i'm i'm not trying to be jinxy jinxerson but when you sit here right now it is just so difficult to see anybody else winning the division and i mean the packers because the other two teams are so far back like it would really just take a humongous meltdown by the vikings and way better play out of nowhere by the packers that i'm not sure they're capable of and it's sort of weird to declare the division the vikings here in october but that's what it felt like today it's's just like, if you can't beat that team that tried everything they could early in the game to give it to you and you,

you couldn't run away. I mean, the giants did the same thing for them. The giants were down 17, three and came back and beat them the same with Washington. Uh, so that's, that is just not a very good football team. And unless they find something magical, I think that eight to nine wins will take the NFC at very least the NFC North. All right. Next question for you. Let's talk about the Viking schedule. So if we start naming the teams that they beat now, this is before Sunday night football. So I don't know what happened on Sunday night football yet, but just follow with me. Anyway, you got the Packers, the lions, the saints, the bears and the dolphins. Those are the teams.

The Vikings beat anything you sense that's in common with those teams. Jonathan, they're not that great so far through six weeks of the NFL season. As we're speaking right now, none of them have a winning record, which is remarkable to be five and one and five of the six teams you play do not have a winning record. Now, however, when you start to look forward, of course, the Packers game at the end of the year, it doesn't look as daunting, but there are some teams that suddenly look way harder than they looked at the beginning of the year. Uh, even Arizona just put the beginning of the year. Even Arizona

just put up 42 on the Saints. Washington actually looked quite a bit better with Taylor Heineke than they have with Carson Wentz and their defense now two weeks in a row has done better. The Jets and the Giants are winning games. The Jets defense is phenomenal and the Giants is pretty darn good as well. Dallas got Dak back, put up 24 points and beat the Lions. I mean, they have actually now a difficult upcoming schedule for a lot of weeks. How long do you think from now will we have a good sense of how good this Vikings team is relative to talking about it, not just for the division, but for the entire NFC. Like at what point will you look up and say, you know what?

They've played enough good teams and enough bad teams. I've got a sample and now I'm sure. I think that schedule is the way you see going back to the last question we had in the last talking point is how you see the Vikings losing the division is this schedule is incredibly tough going down the stretch. For me, the answer to this question is incredibly tough going down the stretch. For me, the answer to this question is four more weeks. Give me four more weeks because of the opponents and what the different types of opponents they are and what they offer you. Because get through that Cowboys

game and we should mostly know everything we need to know about this team. The Cardinals, they're a team that looks like they may be on the rise. As we expected, DeAndre Hopkins would provide that kind of ability to him, as I'm hearing thunderstorms right now. Washington, they're a mess. We knew that. They found a way to beat the Packers, who are also a mess. But you should handle those two teams.

You should. If you're a 5-1 football team and you want to act like you're a 5-1 football team that should be at the top of the NFC, you should beat those teams handily. The Buffalo Bills, you have to go there. That's an incredibly tough one. They're a Super Bowl contender. They are the Super Bowl contender, considering they're the ones who beat the Chiefs, and the Chiefs are making everybody look awful right now. Can you keep that game respectable to me? I already have that down and lost. I think everybody in the country besides the 53 guys plus coaching staff and TCO Performance

Center have that down as a loss. So can you keep that respectable? Good luck on that. And then the Cowboys game. They're a team that should be a power in the NFC. How do you handle them or how you handle them will say a lot about your playoff chances in the NFC because they're a team like the Eagles that are at the top of the NFC. They are playing really good football right now. They have one of the best defenses in the league. So if you can find a way to either keep that close or get a win against them,

that will tell me a whole lot about whether you're actually a contender in the NFC or you're just going to get to the playoffs and you're going to be one of the teams in there, but you're not really going to have a chance. Folks, those who know me well are aware that I'm not a big drinker, but when my neighbors recently dropped by, they were surprised to see a bunch of tall boy cans laying around. No, I didn't change my life choices. Those cans were liquid death water. In particular, I've become a big fan of the sparkling lime flavor.

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situations, bring a Liquid Death can of water with you. Pick it up at Target, Hy-Veeee whole foods, or go to liquid death.com slash insider. That's liquid death.com slash insider and use their store locator. I think you picked the exact right number of games because these next two are very much take care of business games. Arizona is a different football team, even by the numbers with DeAndre Hopkins. And I think he had what, 10 catches the other night against new Orleans. Now, of course, Andy Dalton helped Arizona win that football game with a timely pick six and not a very good

overall performance by Dalton, but it just, I mean, that's Kyler Murray's guy. It's very much like Devante Adams and Aaron Rogers, but maybe even more exaggerated with the way that Murray has played when he's had Hopkins versus not having him. That offensive line still has problems. The relationship between Kyler Murray and Cliff Kingsbury has problems and you cannot trust their defense pretty much at all. And not only that, two weeks to prepare. So you come back fresh and healthy and at U S bank stadium, there is no excuse for losing to the Arizona Cardinals in this game. And then Washington on the road. Now this is one with the way their defensive line is performing. You do get a little nervous about, and also cousins going back to Washington, wanting to rub it in their face.

Does he get a little anxious as he want to do sometimes uh but i yeah i mean i would definitely say that the concern is like sacks and pressures and things like that that can undo this offense that we even saw with miami that they have talent up front that could be problematic and they have an elite receiver with terry mclaurin still even if that team gets to 500 if you're a legitimate contender coming off of a home game, the situation is pretty favorable for you. Go to Washington and get a win. I don't think anyone expects them to beat Buffalo, but they expect them not to get blown out by Buffalo. Say like the Gophers going to Penn State, you know, expect them to just play hard with the Nittany Lions.

So much for that. You had to bring that um uh you know and then that game against Dallas now that's the real one I mean that's the game that's the one they're coming here by that point Prescott will be have fully recovered and back to 100 and that Dallas team is a beast I mean they they have one of the best defenses in the NFL they just dominated again today I mean Trayvon Diggs, Justin Jefferson, put that one on the marquee. I mean, that is a game that is going to be the most exciting Vikings game since dot, dot, dot 2019 playoffs, I guess. I mean, really, right? Like the biggest, most exciting, most hyped up game that actually matters. It will be since they went out to San Francisco in the

2019 playoffs, that game. And after that, we will have a good sense for where they stand. The Cowboys are not a perfect team, but a very good one that you're supposed to be equal or better to. So show us that. The Thanksgiving game, I don't know, because it's so random. I mean, Thursday night, it's the Patriots. Belichick's probably already bugging their locker room or something so you know that one's a little bit weird but I think that Dallas game will be able to tell us pretty much for sure uh who the Vikings are next question for you Jonathan will the Detroit Lions ever be good I mean ever like ever in your lifetime my lifetime until a black hole swallows this

little rock in the stratosphere that's floating around near the sun will the Detroit Lions ever be good because going into this year there were a lot of folks and we more joked about it than took them serious who thought that they would actually be a legitimate contender in the NFC North but they have not ever really been a legitimate contender in the NFC North you have to go back to the NFC Central in 1991 for them to really matter. I mean, it's just unbelievable. Everybody in the off season with the Dan Campbell stuff. Oh, he's got him playing. He's crying on hard knocks. He loves his players. I don't know that Dan Campbell can really coach a football team. I think he's a fun guy, but that might be it. And they seem once again, a million miles away from being

competitive. And what seemed like a pretty good win for the Vikings at the time now seems like just same old lions W that you can just write down on the schedule. And we were talking about the schedule, how there's not too many easy wins. All of a sudden that game in Detroit looks like one that you have to have and should very much have. So there are still a few that won the game against Indy that are ones that you should win, but it just blows my mind. Like, I feel like the Detroit lions will never, ever be good ever again, ever. Yeah. I'm kind of with you. I think a lot of the preseason hype was down to the fact that they got three wins over their last six games of the season.

But let's look at those three wins. The first one came against the Minnesota Vikings in the midst of a death spiral in the final season of Mike Zimmer. So not shocking that they got the win at home by basically duping Cam Dantzler into being Cam Dantzler at the time. Then they get the win against Arizona, which was already going down the drain at that point. DeAndre Hopkins was injured.

The relationship, it seems like, between Kyler Murray and Cliff Kingsbury had already plummeted and Call of Duty had just come out, so Kyler Murray was already distracted by that time. And then they get the win the final week of the season by torching the Green Bay Packers for 404 yards, but it was a Packers team that had already locked up a spot in the playoffs. They didn't want to risk any of their guys. It was a Packers team without David Bakhtiari again, and it was a team that had Aaron Rodgers start for half of it and gave the rest of the minutes to Jordan Love. So I'm not really

counting that as a win over the actual Green Bay Packers. So that's three wins against teams that you might expect them to actually win against despite being winless before that. And then the rest of the games, the losses were to teams that they, that should be signifiers that this still isn't a very good Detroit Lions football team. They ended the season three, 13 and one because they were a bad football team. They lost and they got blown out by a bad Seattle Seahawks team at the end of last season. They lost to a Falcons and Broncos teams that were also bad. So I think there was just a lot of built-in hype based off the three wins to end the season that gave them, it felt like a little bit of momentum going into the second year of Dan Campbell.

And maybe the offseason helped a little bit, but I don't know. I think just a lot of people got duped into three wins over the last six weeks of the season and bought into it helped a little bit, but I don't know. I think just a lot of people got duped into three wins over the last six weeks of the season and bought into it, maybe a little too much. Well, so what I will say, though, for Detroit's future is being this bad is a benefit. Adam Silver is not going to come by and relegate you as he bogusly claimed that he was going to start relegating NBA teams.

Sure, pal, that's never going to happen. But it doesn't happen in the NFL either. And when you watch college football on Saturday, I mean, Bryce Young is fantastic. C.J. Stroud is really great. I mean, he just tore apart the very good Iowa defense. And, I mean, you watch these games, there's five or six guys again, and they could end up with the pick of the litter, especially if Carolina starts

hilariously winning. I mean, Carolina truly though has more talent, I think, than what their record was. They just had the most clueless coach. But if like PJ Walker goes full Gino Smith and starts beating teams, I do think they have good talent on defense and they should have been better so if they start winning here and there and they end up with like five or six wins I mean first of all congratulations on your five or six wins but Detroit that might not be Detroit like they might win three again they might be that bad and win three again but this time there's a quarterback or two or three to take at the top, and then they do actually have a chance.

And remember, I mean, Amin Ra St. Brown has been hurt, got hurt again today, DeAndre Swift. So they have dealt with some things that they did not have enough depth to really handle. I think DJ Chark was out as well, so they were missing their top two receivers. That's going to hurt Jared Goff. But one of the reasons you trade Stafford for golf is because you're not locked into him long-term. So I, I don't actually think

the answer is that they're going to be bad forever, but I really thought they were going to be more competitive this year. And again, it just sort of speaks to how everything that could go right for the Vikings has gone, right. It was like, what's the best case scenario in the division? It's that Detroit is Detroit and that the green Bay receiver thing really matters. And that they also can't pass block that well for Aaron Rogers. And that's exactly what's happened. And then, Hey, your schedule all of a sudden looks way easier to start the season than it would have otherwise. Okay. Next question for you, Jonathan is Tom Brady, 2010 Brett Favre, because he is looking very 2010 Brett Favre. And, and again, mention the win by PJ Walker in Carolina. Congratulations to PJ Walker. I mean, those XFL fans who watch the Houston Roughnecks and PJ

Walker dominate the entire XFL and should have been champions if not for COVID. Remember how good PJ Walker was. So no joke, but Tom Brady putting up three points against the Carolina Panthers is the most 2010 Brett Favre stuff I have ever seen in my entire life. Yeah, absolutely. I mean that there can be no better perfect comparison than this one because you look at how this whole thing has played out for Tom Brady. Coming off of a career year last year, everybody thought, oh yeah, this is simple. Just plug him right back into that offense. This is going to look really extremely good. He retired in the offseason just like Brett Favre did. Was coaxed out of retirement either by himself like Tom Brady was or by teammates like Brett Favre was coaxed out of retirement either by himself, like Tom Brady was, or by teammates like Brett Favre was. Now struggling to look like the same guy who had that career year last year. Oh, and there was a coaching change mixed in there just at different points for both of those two

guys in their respective years in this comparison. This comparison fits the bill. I think the team around Tom Brady, though, should be better than the team that was around Brett Favre at the time because the team around Brett Favre just got injured. They were still nursing a bunch of injuries from that Saints-NFC championship game for various reasons that we don't need to get into here and bring up those old wounds again. Various very legal reasons. No pun intended. Very much within the bounds of the game, yeah.

Yeah, so I think this is a good comparison that these two guys, these two seasons are very comparable because Tom Brady just doesn't look like the same guy. I don't know the analytics behind it like you probably would, but it just seems like everything there is a complete struggle right now. They lose to Pittsburgh. They lose to Green Bay. Teams that they shouldn't lose to if you want to go in and win the NFC,

a very winnable NFC like they should. They should run away with the NFC South because the rest of that division is just garbage right now. But they're not doing it because they can't get wins against teams like Carolina right now. And that's embarrassing. Folks, I know you've heard me talk about Soda Stick for a long time now, but I'm telling you, you have to start following them on social media for new

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relegation you have a team in germany you have whatever so the the division that plays the worst has to go be over there and earn their way back into the nfl because the nfc self is being sent to germany i mean it just, Joe Burrow goes for 480 and it could have been more against Atlanta. Carolina gets their first win of the year. I mean, that division is an abomination. That, we were talking about what's going to win the North. What's going to win the South?

Six, seven? I mean, the Tampa Bay should still win the South and go into the playoffs at like eight and nine or maybe even worse than that. But I don't know who else is catching them as bad as some of those other teams really are. You know, the other thing I thought of is what if Tom Brady retired mid season? It was actually good for them. I mean the way that not, not only is he playing poorly and the numbers weren't that horrific as in like his PFF grades, but the, the offensive statistics were that horrific going into it. So it was kind of suggesting that maybe he was throwing the ball. Okay. Still,

but they were not moving the offensive needle at all, which is very clear. And again, kind of with these old quarterbacks, it does come down to offensive line in part because it's not like Brady or Rogers can really move the way that they used to. And so, I mean, offensive line always matters no matter what, but probably matters to Brady's career more than it ever has at the ripe age of 46. Although his face reflects a 17-year-old. So that's normal. It's very normal. Very normal stuff going on with that guy. I mean, two weeks ago, he's comparing himself to being shipped off to the military.

And, you know, I mean, he just looks like he wants nothing to do with this. I don't know why he came back. I think that, though, if you were to have guessed farvin brady would have been two dudes that you guessed will will only retire when their carcass is dragged off the field like that that's just who they are that they're not go out on top guys like oh well that worked out well for me we'll see y'all later that That's not who they are. Um, you know, but this is, uh, this is really shocking as, as bad as it looks considering, um, how well he played last year and he deserved to be an MVP consideration. And I guess just losing that game to the Rams must've driven him

insane. Uh, but yeah, this is, this is a bad version and just hilarious that they could still win the division as bad as it is, but it, reflective of that i think you make a great point that the 09 supporting cast for brett farb was absolutely phenomenal a great offensive line good receivers and what was it sydney rice ends up having surgery on his hip so he doesn't come back and and that contract dispute yeah right oh right the uh the contract and that just impacted him a lot it just impacted him a lot and then the injuries farve never really recovered it was a last minute thing his heart wasn't in it uh there's a lot of a lot of similarities there with tom brady and uh i really will be curious i mean because his wife has already kind of publicly

said which wow imagine if your wife could do Like, what would your wife say publicly about you? Mine would be thrilled that I cleaned the house while she was calling Gophers Penn State for national radio. So I'm in good standing for her press conference. How's my husband doing press conference? If the paparazzi came up to her in Happy Valley and said, do you know, is your husband cleaning the house at home? How did he do in the garage? What did you know what is your husband cleaning the house at home how did he do in the garage what'd you think of that well you know i thought that there were a few things he still could have thrown out in the garage but overall it's fairly good game i mean just that's got to be unbelievable uh for your relationship right i mean i don't know how you deal with that

but i really think it would be better for him and the team if he just said like, and this is again, could be just like with the Packers and old takes exposed that blows up in my face, but there's just no path. I just don't see any path to where these things change. These guys, they're not 37 anymore. Like there's just the magic is gone. I think for both of them. Yeah. It looks like a Tom Brady that would rather be the owner quarterback of the Miami Dolphins at this point in time instead of the quarterback for the Tampa

Bay Buccaneers who have gone through a coaching change. It seemed like an unnecessary coaching change because Bruce Arians still had it, it seemed like, getting the Buccaneers to a Super Bowl a couple years ago and keeping that fire alive there. But you get, I guess, the age of Bruce Arians and understand the switch there but it also just seems like a Tom Brady that's got a lot on his plate off the football field and we know how much that can affect people uh even if they are one of the greatest quarterbacks of all time like Tom Brady has been uh for most of his career so yeah it just seems like this and it's also weird what a weird world that we're saying that a Blaine Gabbert led Tampa Bay Buccaneers

might be better than a Tom Brady led Buccaneers at this point also blaine gabbert being 33 is blowing my mind that he's been in the league that long and he's all he's our age now i was thinking kyle trask would be the guy i mean i don't know i don't know what he looks like i've never seen him play uh well let's see uh jonathan wife. How'd you do today? Well, you know, Jonathan was very patient for the kid's birthday party and, uh, Hey, I got the backyard cleaned up finally after six years. So I thought he, uh, thought he dealt with the other families well at the party and the, uh, the in-laws and, uh, you know, I, I, I give him, I give him strong scores. We still got some things to work on with small talk with Jonathan, but, uh, we'll go for it. Yeah. Let's just leave that one there and move on

to our final question. Let's see. Okay. So the current NFC playoff teams, when I originally wrote this, I now have to adapt it because San Francisco, thanks for nothing there for that game. And I only mean for entertainment purposes, for vikings purposes i suppose it's better if they lost any nfc team but for entertainment purposes that's the one where i was like getting my snacks you know like yeah all right i'm ready for this first i grinded through that first three and a half hours like let's do this and then there's a good half of football i guess so the most entertaining game of the day and it turned out to be bad i i just i really thought that san francisco's defense would hold tight at least a little bit but it is it is chiefs it is bills and i will throw the bengals in that

mix as well and everybody else is just existing um for those teams to get in the way. So, okay, so let's look, let's just compare every NFC playoff team to the Vikings. I don't think we need to have a discussion about Philly because Philly is better than the Vikings. Head to head, record wise, there's no real debate there, but the rest of them, I think there is. So I'm going to go one by one. You tell me what you think.

Vikings, and this is not their matchups. This is just the other NFC playoff teams in comparison. So I'm going to go one by one. You tell me what you think. Vikings, and this is not their matchups. This is just the other NFC playoff teams in comparison. Vikings and Seattle Seahawks. Who is better in that one? Well, I would want to say based off just matchups, kind of looking at it without really diving in, it's the Vikings. But the way the Seahawks play as a team,

that feels like a team that will just, it does not matter where they're going. It doesn't matter who they're playing. They are going to beat you up. They're playing, it seems like phenomenal defensive football and they're behind Gino Smith, which who knew that would happen after eight years of not playing an NFL game. Gino Smith has that offense going, uh, whether they have DK Metcalf or not. I think that's a really tough matchup. I want to lean towards Vikings though, because of the way they've played at times, but I'm going to say Seahawks in this one.

I know I'm flip-flopping, but I'm going to say Seahawks here. Okay. Yeah. You start off saying Vikings and then changed your mind. You know, the deciding factor. It's so tough with those two teams.

So it's two teams that took different directions. And this is maybe a longer discussion for a fans only pod or something, but the Seattle Seahawks, remember the whole point about criticizing some of the things the Vikings did was you don't have to do this in order to still compete. Like you don't have to extend players that aren't giving you what they used to give you, or you don't have to sign older players and you can still compete. And the evidence is in Seattle. Like they are still very competitive

and they have a guy who's a long time backup with some younger players that they've drafted, like Kenneth Walker stepping up very impressive game from him. The Seahawks are getting better quarterback play than the Vikings right now. And if I'm making a decision on these two teams, I kind of have to give them the slight edge because of that. And I know the record is different by a couple of wins, but you know, we talked about how the Vikings wins are against all teams that have not winning records, at least prior to the game between Miami and Pittsburgh and Miami is getting to a back. They did not have to, uh, against the Vikings. So I think that the answer might be Seattle. I think it's very, very close to even though,

very close to even, especially if you don't fully buy into what Gino Smith is, but what an impressive victory today though, the chargers 37 points on that defense, which is pretty stacked. And they put a lot of money into in the off season, a top notch quarterback. I mean, that is by that. That's the thing. Gino is out playing Kirk cousins at this moment. And if you take the most impressive win by either team, it just happened today by Seattle. So I would have to give a slight edge to the Seahawks for those reasons. Um, let's go on to the next team is Tampa Bay. I mean, at this moment, there's no case for Tampa Bay being better than the Vikings. No, that's all Vikings. They play a better brand of football.

Tom Brady, as we've just mentioned, does not look like he cares to be there at all. And even if he retires midseason, that brings a whole nother set of storylines and distractions and media questions for all those players to handle. So even if Blaine Gabbert or Kyle Trask do play better than Tom Brady, it's just going to be a whirlwind of distractions there. I think for this one, it's easily the Vikings. As you said, there's really no comparison here between these two teams. I just want to say, I didn't even check if Kyle Trask is still on their team, by the way, that's just a pro football reference has him listed as their third quarterback. So, okay. Well, because Kellen Mond's not on the Vikings anymore, it's sort of a rung in my head,

like, Oh, I haven't heard anything about him, but nor should I since Tom Brady is their quarterback. You usually don't hear much about QB three. Uh, okay. The giants, this is an interesting one because a lot of the same stuff that said about the Vikings can be said about the giants. Their Packers win does not look as impressive. They beat a improved Jaguars team that I keep trying to love. And the Jaguars will not love me back. Uh, they, they have lost a lot of close games where Trevor Lawrence has looked improved, but they just don't have enough. So they grit out another very close win as the Giants have all year long. They start the season by winning on a two point conversion.

They went on the final play in Green Bay. It comes down to the very end against Jacksonville as well. So their wins aren't exactly crushing other teams. There's a lot of similarities here. In fact, even their quarterback play where they've tried to protect Daniel Jones quite a bit in that offense with a running game. That's the type of stuff we talk about with the Vikings. Their defense has been quite good, I would say, for the Giants and their offensive line as well. So how do you size up these two teams? I think for me, like the Seahawks one, it comes down to quarterback

play and who I trust more in a game, in a single game between these two teams. And it's Kirk Cousins because he has better weapons. I think overall, especially throwing the ball, he has better weapons than Daniel Jones does. Yes. Daniel Jones has Saquon Barkley in the backfield, but we seen running back play and how the value of that has kind of diminished over the past couple of years. I would trust Justin Jefferson, Adam Thielen, KJ Osborne, and maybe if they ever get to that point of getting Odell Beckham Jr., but that's also not in this part of the conversation. But I like the weapons that Kirk Cousins has to throw to over Daniel Jones,

so I'm going to trust that Kirk Cousins could do it in one game against the Giants. So I'll go Vikings here. I do think that Daniel Jones has closed the gap significantly on where you would put him versus Kirk Cousins. Now I expect Cousins to get better as the season goes along. So this is a factor. So if we're comparing right now, I think it's a slight edge to the New York Giants because of their defense where the Vikings defense is just not trustworthy.

I mean, they can give up 150 yards to a top receiver at any time. And the Giants defense has been consistently excellent really from day one. I think they have more talent on that defense and they're playing better at this moment. I think both coaches deserve a ton of praise, Brian Dable and Kevin O'Connell with the way that they have kind of taken franchises that were down in the dumps, got a lot of people to buy into what they're saying. So to me, it's very, very even, though. I think you mentioned the Justin Jefferson factor. That's big.

That's a really big thing because you kind of come down to, all right, but who's got the better player that can change a game in an instant that has just been mostly unstoppable, save for one or two games and really his career, mostly unstoppable. I think it's, I think this is a dead tie though. I mean, I, I, I don't know how to size this one up exactly. I think we just need a bigger sample size on both teams because there's still reason, even after this win today to kind of say, I don't know about those giants, just like there is to say, I don't know about those Vikings yet. So this one needs time to play out. I'm going to say, I'm going to cop out and say TBD on this. I think if I had to go slight edge, I would probably go Vikings. I would the slight edge because like you said, the quarterback, Justin Jefferson. Um, but I think that if they played head to head that Vegas is probably given this one, like kind of dead, even

the next one is Dallas. I'm just going to start out here by saying, I think Dallas is a better team than the Vikings. I think they're probably a better team by a good margin and guess who the Vikings matchup would be in the playoffs that they started today. It would be Dallas. Now they'll have a chance when they play Dallas to prove me wrong on that, but the defensive elite talent guys in their primes, digs Parsons, the way they get after the quarterback, they're running the football. Well, Dak Prescott is back. Like CD lamb is a superstar. I just think that like top to bottom, that is a really, really, really good team

that would be in first place with having played a backup quarterback for most of the year. I mean, they could survive that and now be in this position. They get an easy win against the Lions. Yeah, I think that team is a legit Super Bowl contender. They led the NFL in scoring last year.

I mean, they've got some things that the Vikings don't have, and I would give them an edge in a head-to-head matchup. They've got the second-best pass rush grade, according to PFF, behind the Buffalo Bills, who are easily far and away the best defense in the league. And the Cowboys are the best defense in the NFC. And I think the way that that pass rush gets after quarterbacks, like you said, has me very concerned about this matchup, should they face each other in the playoffs, because as we've seen, this offensive line, yeah, they started out great,

but over the past couple weeks, it's gotten shakier and shakier as Ed Ingram has realized, oh, the NFL is a whole different level, and Garrett Bradbury's play has started to fall back to earth, or back to his normal numbers a little bit. So that pass rush kind of does it for me and gives this one easily to the Cowboys. I don't care if it's a us bank stadium or not. This one goes to the Cowboys. They have the thing that has always beaten the Kirk cousins Vikings simply like that's it that you, you mentioned it against the dolphins, a team that was really not very good at covering against the pass, they were able to almost completely shut down the Vikings offense just by getting after

the quarterback. The Vikings don't have an answer if someone shuts down their run game and gets after the quarterback. And then I think that at this point in their careers, Prescott's probably got a little bit of an edge on Cousins. It might not be as big as some people give it but I think it's still a pretty it's it's a decent size edge uh if they both play their best football it's probably close but Prescott's just a little bit younger it's mostly really about that defense though I mean the Vikings defense is still highly questionable

after giving up 468 yards to the Dolphins and having to kind of luck into a bounce interception, a fumble, that's not going to happen every week. So yeah, I'll say that the Cowboys are better. And the last one is the Rams, which to me is maybe somewhat close, but it's probably the Vikings over the Rams. The Rams offensive line is super miserable at this point. Lots of injuries. They

lost Andrew Whitworth. The one thing that does make you hesitate is that Aaron Donald still exists. And so if we're talking about who's the better overall team, it's the Vikings. I don't even think there's a debate there, but head to head, can one man ruin an entire team's life? They certainly can. And he did last year when the two teams played. Stafford threw three picks and they won because Aaron Donald ripped their heads off and beat them with them.

So that's always possible. But I don't think the Rams are very good. I actually think the 49ers are probably better unless Odell Beckham shows back up in LA. Yeah, I think that the Aaron Donald factor plays so much into this one because the conversation we just had with the Cowboys, that pass rush, especially up the middle, has always made Kirk Cousins just look like a very below average quarterback. And Aaron

Donald can certainly do that, especially with big moments on the line, especially in the playoffs. So that one does it for me for the Rams. But I would say overall, like you said, the overall roster screams Minnesota at this point because that offensive line for the Rams is just not holding up for Matthew Stafford. And we saw after years and years and years in Detroit with what a bad offensive line can do to him, can make him look just bang average as opposed to the guy we saw last year

lead a team to the super bowl so i would say i would lean vikings but that aaron donald factor scares the crap out of me if i'm the vikings but i also do think that uh what zadaria smith and daniel hunter showed is if they face a below average offensive line they are also going to destroy people and yeah i mean so it's it's only close kind of because of the superstar talent is still there. A Cooper cup of course. And the Vikings can't stop top receivers. I, yeah, I still have to give the edge to the Vikings there. But I also think that if you're the Vikings, you're rooting for the Rams to beat out San Francisco. The only thing on that. Yeah. I don't know because those two teams are so familiar with how the Rams offense and therefore the Vikings offense works.

You kind of wonder about that. And San Francisco has generally done a really good job against the Rams and head to head. And I think part of the reason is because they get after the passer. So if you're the Vikings, even though both those teams have some scary things to them, I think you'd rather end up facing the Rams. So there we are, Jonathan, bi-week Bonanza hot routes. If you want to hear this exact same format, only talking about the entire league, check out the hot routes podcast just once a week.

So just one added on little pod, not asking for a huge commitment, just, just, just a little more football. Is that, is that too much for you people um anyway get outside the scope of vikings land just a little bit to see how the rest of the league is doing a weird a weird day it's always weird the bi-week is one of the like weirdest days of the year because it's it's like one of those dreams that you have where you forgot something and then you're trying to get there, but there's traffic and you're like, I'm late for my brother's wedding and your dream.

And you're just like going off the road or whatever, you know, that's what it's like all day. Like, aren't I supposed to be somewhere or doing something? And well, I guess we did this. So great job, Jonathan. We'll do this more often where we circle back to a hot route style on this feed as well and relate it to the Vikings. And, of course, there'll be lots of coverage. We'll have fans only podcasts. Jeremiah Searles will check in as usual, and we will go forth toward the Vikings game against Arizona.

So we will talk to you all every day as we usually do.