Purple Insider - a Minnesota Vikings and NFL podcast - How will the Vikings avoid the Patriots' pressure?

Episode Date: November 22, 2022

Matthew Coller and Jeremiah Sirles pick apart a Justin Jefferson quote about the Vikings' offense failing to adjust to the pressure they faced against the Dallas Cowboys and they talk about what Kevin O'Connell can do to deal with the New England Patriots and whether there should be concern about the growing injury list.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

🎵 Hello, welcome to another episode of Purple Insider, the last inside a hotel room because my bathroom reconstruction is done and I will be back in the home studio very soon. But we will have a special bonanza. I have a new bathroom bonanza here on the show. Matthew Collar, Tuesday morning left guard, Jeremiah Searles, who last week pronounced that what goes up must come down. And wow, it came down, Jeremiah, crashing to earth in 40 to three fashion. I mean, I had a feeling. I mean, like I said last week, I had a feeling it was going to happen. Now, did I think 40 to three?

No, I thought 28 to 10 or maybe like even a 24 to 13. But the 40 to three just complete dismantling of the Minnesota Vikings was not what I anticipated. But I also remember saying last week, like, we shouldn't panic if they lose this game. However, losing in the fashion in which they lost, slight panic has crept into the back of my mind. Your opinion on whether getting right back after it is good or bad, because they're saying good. I don't know what else they can say if they were going like, oh, my God, like, you know, they're not they're not going to do that. But you still have some guys banged up. And I thought what was really noticeable in the game, aside from Christian

Derrissaw, which we'll get to, was also that Zedarius Smith was out in some of the key spots, and he's been dealing with this knee thing. I mean, that guy's been playing like an MVP or a defensive player of the year, and if he's even a little bit slowed, and Justin Jefferson has a turf toe, and like all of a sudden you start going like, wait, they needed to stay healthy, and there's some guys that are banged up a little bit here. So I think it cuts both ways that, yes, you get an opportunity to get right back out there

and play an inferior team to Dallas, but also, like, they're not the healthiest right now. Yeah, you know, for a psyche as a player, it's great to just get back right to it, you know, like, because honestly, you don't have time to stew over it on Sunday night and Monday and Tuesday before you get back to game planning Wednesday. I mean, honestly, with the short weeks like this, you don't even really watch the tape.

You watch a correction tape, which I'm sure there was plenty. You know, you watch a quick correction tape like, hey, got to fix this, got to fix this. And then it's right into base install for the Patriots, right? I'm not dumb, right? It's the Patriots. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. My brain's all over the place, dude. But, you know, so you get right back into it with the Patriots? Yeah. Yeah. Okay. My brain's all over the place, dude. But you know, so you get right back into it with the Patriots, but you're also right. Like physically, it's the hardest thing to do in the NFL. The turnaround from a Sunday to a Thursday game is the physically hardest thing to do within the year, especially at this point in the year, you always prayed you got your early season Thursday night game, like week three or week four. So you could just get it out of the way, have that kind of mini buybuy, and then get to it.

Because when you are at this point of the year, it takes a full three or four days just to get yourself back to practice shape. And now you've got to be even four days back to game shape. So, yeah, it's really tough for you as a player to get that physically. The good news is you can just flush it and move on and have to do that. But the problem is the other team saw the weaknesses too. The other team sees where you got exposed at times too. And it doesn't give you a ton of time to fix those things on an individual basis, right? The individual part of practice is where you fix the technique errors and the fundamental errors that in protection or whatever it is. And you just don't

have as much time because it's a short week and you're focused on game planning. So that's where it can really hurt you. And you're going to have to make real time adjustments in order to fix these correctable things, or you're just going to continue to keep getting tested on them until we get them fixed. Now, I think that it can also swing both ways with a horrible loss like that, where it can be a bit of a wake up call for maybe things that you were getting away with, or it can start some finger-pointing because this wasn't a noon game that 16 people saw. I just saw today that the ratings were like set some record or whatever else, highest ratings of the year. So the most people of any game that wasn't on Sunday Night Football saw you get your tail whooped 40-3. That means that people start looking around and go,

wait, whose fault was this? And I have some quotes. In fact, you know, I haven't done a whole lot of singing on the show, but what does that quote mean? Yeah. And I've also got some stats also to look at. What does that mean? But what does that quote mean from Justin Jefferson yesterday?

Now, this really stuck out to me. I didn't see a whole lot of buzz in the NFL world about this, like your pro football talks and so forth. I didn't see this really picked up on, but really caught my ear. So Justin Jefferson said he was asked about the offense and kind of what happened and how hard it is as a receiver when you're just starting to run your route and your quarterback's getting pressured and how that impacts receivers. So I'll give you his full answer. It's a little bit long. He says, Kirk was getting sacked before you're even out of your break.

It's definitely a tough situation, but we have to move toward more quick game, getting the ball out quicker, putting the ball in space and letting people work. Things that we need to adjust throughout the game. If it's not working the way we planned, we need to find a way to adjust, to go towards something that will work for us better. We can't continue to do the same thing throughout the game, even though it's not working. And then he was asked, so do you wish that an adjustment was made mid game? And he said, of course I wish we adjusted faster, getting the ball out quicker and not letting Micah Parsons and the less, the rest of their D line get a chance to get back there to Kirk. It's just things we need to learn from.

This is a new team. It's a new coaching staff and we're still learning to play with each other. It's a lesson learned your analysis, because that to me sounds like Justin Jefferson saying my coach didn't adjust and you know what Mr. Jefferson I totally agree I totally agree from from the moment that Micah Parsons swings his giant arm and smacks the ball out of Kirk Cousins hand it should have been like uh-oh we need to dial up some screens some slants some quick stuff to get people the ball because today we are not going to be able to take seven step drops and

there were many times where when Kirk is getting sacked I'm looking down the field the receivers are 20-30 yards down the field running deep routes like that that just wasn't going to work so I'm actually on his side that I think that that was a mid-game adjustment that needed to happen pretty quickly and didn't. Yeah, no, I agree with you. But that also could be – that sounds a little coach-speaky too. That might be something that KOC and them had already mentioned to Jefferson. Like, hey, we have to do this better. So I can see both sides of it where Jefferson's like, yeah, it's a new staff.

It's new everything. We have to do that. And him basically being like, this is what we have to to do but I could also see in the coaches and even Kirk coming to him after the game or coming to them you know and saying like hey we need to do this better this is something we have to adjust better so I don't necessarily know if I feel like that's him throwing shade at KOC it could be 100% it could be and I agree it needs to happen the in-game adjustments when you're facing a defensive line like that, I mean, the same thing should have happened against the Eagles.

You know, when you've got a defensive line that's really, really good and they're going to go, that's how teams have had success against those teams. The other thing that everyone, like we talk about the quick passing game, is we never establish the run. If you don't establish the run against a team that has built to rush the passer, you're going to be in a lot of trouble. And so we just never established that. From the word go, there was nowhere to go with the running game. There was nowhere to do anything with that. And so, yeah, obviously if you, your fallback to

no running game has to be a quick passing game, which is the equivalent of your running game. And when you don't do that either, then it's just, it's all, all bets are off. Those dudes pin their ears back and go, especially when they get a lead. So, you know, I think that it's not as much for me as an in-game adjustment, as much as just knowing your personnel and knowing what you have and doing it even before the game begins. Like, instead of starting the game

with these long seven-step drops, like, hey, dink and dunk this thing for a little bit, frustrate these pass rushers, and then we'll take our shots, versus the other way was like, we'll take our shots, and then we never came back to the dink and dunk you know i would like to see us start more with that short passing game the quick slants the hooks the screens just to keep guys on their toes and not

let micah parsons just get into a rhythm or let lawrence get into a rhythm because you see it happens to daniel hunter and it happens to zary sm. When they let them not get in a rhythm, they don't have as much success. I think what surprised me more is just that quotes like that usually end up getting grabbed and put on the screen on ESPN and NFL Network and having four NFL players, former NFL players debate was Justin Jefferson calling out his coach and everything else. Jefferson has a very honest way about him, though. And so, I mean, it might be that they talked about that in the morning meeting and he just sort of said it like, yeah, we need to adjust quicker because that's what we spent this morning on about, you know,

getting to this quick passing game. The thing about it, though, is their quick passing game has not worked this year. By the numbers, they are averaging five and a half yards per attempt when they throw the ball, when it travels less than 10 yards. That's down a whole yard from two years ago with Gary. And it's down even more than that from 2019, where they were at their best at throwing short passes and screens. They have no screen game. I mean, Johnny Munt has been their screen game this year. I mean, for all the talk in the offseason, and let it be a lesson to you, Delvin Cook's going to line up at receiver. Delvin Cook's going to be a huge part of the passing game. Nowhere to be found. His yards per target is half what it was in 2019

when Kevin Stefanski found ways to use him effectively. And I think that was what was so great about that offense in 2019 is screen game. Just if the other teams were being aggressive upfield, they were getting hit with big plays on screens and passes to Delvin cook. And it just has not been really effective at all. I think they need that more than ever now, because you're going up against the team that leads the NFL in hurry

percentage. You're going up against the team in the New York Jets soon that really gets after the quarterback. And you're doing it without Christian Derrissaw. Quick game better show up pretty fast here. Otherwise, it's going to be seven more sacks against the Patriots and Jets. Yeah, it's got to be a pivotal part of your game plan. Whether it's a receiver screen or even a tight end middle screen, just something to keep the pass rushers honest. Because like you said, if the screen game is non-existent, guess what they're not working on during the week? They're not working on the screen

game. So they're not worried about, oh, is it a screen or can I just completely just pin my ears back and go? If it's pass rush first all the way, you're putting your offensive line at a disadvantage. And you look around some of the teams, like I look at the teams that have struggled to protect the quarterback, right? Look at Cincinnati Bengals. They had two huge plays this week on screens. One of them went for a touchdown, right? And their offensive line has struggled this year.

It's just been not great. And it's against a pass rushing machine of the Pittsburgh Steelers. So when you have teams that are ultra aggressive, if you hit them early with those screen games, it slows those rushers down. It just does. They start thinking more. They start trying to think, is this a true pass rusher? Is he giving me the inside movers? He let me have the outside because they're going to throw a middle screen. You know, so all those things have to get brought into consideration when you're game planning for what you want to start the game with. Like I said, I'd like to start the game next week with more quick game and passing and screens, even though it hasn't been successful to the date. Like you have to do it if you don't have your franchise left tackle who sucks that he got

re-injured and we don't need to dive and labor it too much. But man, one week's not enough. It's just not enough for a concussion guy. You're seeing it time and time again. These guys come back after a week and one more hit and now they're going to miss two weeks or he's going to miss it's just not enough for a concussion guy you're seeing it time and time again these guys come back after a week and one more hit and now they're going to miss two weeks or he's going to miss three weeks and it's the worst time of year for you to lose your left tackle so hate that for him but you know when you have backup left tackles it doesn't usually end well for you it's just not a position that you can take a back seat on and so you have to adjust with that and that might even be more chips and more guys lined up

but guess what that's more guys not in the route tree that's more guys not in the it just it affects the whole offense when you have a left tackle that you can't just depend to block one-on-one you know and kevin o'connell said that they went through the entire protocol with him and i believe you that you did but i think the protocol is flawed. It just is. I mean, Matthew Stafford had the same exact thing happen. Tua had the same exact thing happen, where you come back quickly after a concussion, and, well, the Dolphins didn't even admit the first one was a concussion.

So that's an extra level. But Christian D'Arcy had to leave that game against Buffalo and go to the locker room. And then to come back this quickly, I think that there's a gap in the protocol when it comes to this, because I'm sure that you can pass it. And I'm sure that you can go out there and have a practice. But what is a known proven fact is having one makes you more susceptible to

two. And the more that you build up like the head hits, the easier it becomes. So if you've had a pretty serious concussion seven days ago, the first time you get your neck snap back, you might have another one. And now they're going to be without him for who knows how long it could be a serious amount of time as they go up against two of the best pass rushes in

the league in new England and the New York Jets. It probably would have been better. I'm sure if they could do it again, they would say, let's give him another week before we do this or even more, even if he's able to pass the protocol. I don't blame teams who are going by the protocol for saying, all right, well, he passed all those things and he feels better or whatever else. But I don't know how they reckon with just this fact that this happens all the time where guys are having second concussions. So now this is a serious issue that they have to deal with. On your point about screens, Kirk Cousins this year is 19th in screen yardage. And when they throw a screen, they average 4.2 yards per attempt on a screen i have to scroll to find where that ranks

31st in the nfl in screen yards per attempt they would be better off handing off than they are throwing a screen pass which is really not how it's supposed to be so this this should be a huge part but the problem is there's only three days to figure this out so how difficult is it to make adjustments when you have to go back and play on a thursday it's tough to make adjustments but the good news is i promise you all those screens have been installed you know so it's not like you're installing new plays those all got installed in training camp and otas and they're probably installed every single week you know you don't go into a game with like, we have no screens on the play sheet. Like, that's just not how it works. Like they're there. It's just a matter of getting to them early, I think,

because obviously everyone knows and throwing them in on first down, you know, everyone knows when it's third and eight, third and nine, third and long, it's like draw our screen, like, right? Like everyone knows that. And that's when you've kind of seen more of the screens for the Vikings is those obvious screen situations you know but you sprinkle a receiver screen or you sprinkle a a tight end outside screen on a first and ten or a second and eight like those are when you start to get the success with those things based off of the fact um based off of the fact that you know you can really catch them off guard um or you know it's they think it's a obvious rundown and then all of a sudden you've got a receiver screen out of the fact that, you know, you can really catch them off guard or, you know, it's they think it's an obvious rundown.

And then all of a sudden you've got a receiver screen out of the ball quick. Like those are all installed. I promise you they're all on the play sheet. So I think it's just a matter of getting them repped this week in practice, like getting them used to it and then just going out and executing them. OK, so we need some. What does that stat mean? Because I this is one I really know.

Sometimes it's rhetorical. Sometimes it's like, hey, here's a stat, but we both know what it means. So far this year, I think it's been noticeable that Kirk Cousins' statistics have not been the same as they have been in the past, right? And I think it was very easy to be like, well, that's because they haven't been playing from down two scores as much, where you rack up a lot of stats, even though he's thrown the same number of passes trailing this year as he did last year. Just I look that up. Trust me. But he is now in ESPN's QBR 25th in traditional quarterback rating 22nd and his PFF grade last year was an 88, which was one of the highest of his career, if not the highest. This year it's a 70, which is the same as it was in 2017, the worst of his career.

What does that stat, what do those stats mean to you? Because I think when they were winning all those games, it's very easy to be like, yeah, I don't know like as long as he comes through at the end but now the accumulation of more than half of a season is that he's not playing football at the highest level that he's played in fact his numbers are much closer to someone like Daniel Jones so far this year I mean I think a lot of us do with the O-line play I mean I think I think if we want to play what does that stat mean I think I saw a stat that said he was pressured 63% of his dropbacks last week. I don't care if you're the greatest of all time. You're not going to play well if that's the case.

It's impossible. If you're getting your feet set and getting your first read is where's the rush, not where's my first option, you're not going to play well. And I think that that has been an accumulation over the last few weeks of it's gotten worse and worse. But the thing is he's been able to bail himself out with Justin Jefferson. But when you're down by 37 points, you can't bail yourself out anymore. Like there's nowhere to just make the magic happen.

Like when it's off the rails for this team, it's completely off the rails. And we saw that on Sunday. You know, when you can keep yourselves in the game, every NFL team has enough talent to give themselves a chance to win at the end of the game. And I think the Vikings have more talent than some of the lesser teams. So they have a chance to win more games, which is why they have. And I think that the problem is when we saw it on Sunday, like everything went wrong. Like you couldn't have scripted one more thing to go wrong.

And so Kirk Cousins is just a factor in that. You know, I don't think it's fair to say, oh, Kirk played so terrible. It's why we lost. Like, no, the defense still gave up 40 points. You know, like we still couldn't run the football. We still couldn't do anything. Like, Kirk is obviously the focal point because he's the quarterback. But I think that he is – it's an accumulation of what we talked about

at the beginning of the year where he was missing open throws. He was missing those things. I think he's gotten better with that over the last few weeks. You haven't seen the wide open receivers just being missed. But I think with him getting as pressured as much as he had and getting hit as much as he had, he's getting older. I think it's wearing on him. I think it's wearing on his body. I think it's wearing on his ability to stand in the pocket and deliver that extra second because he knows he's going to take a lick like those things are all wearing on him, which is affecting his ultimate performance. Folks, maybe you've noticed people in your office with what looks like an open tall boy at their desk in the morning at work. Well, it's not a beer. It's more likely it's a can of liquid death, which sounds pretty crazy at first, but it's simply mountain water from the Alps. It's called liquid death because it will murder your thirst and kill plastic pollution, which does seem aggressive, but that's their mission. And they are donating 10% of

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His completion percentage when pressured, 42%. And his quarterback rating when pressured is a 66. So he basically becomes one of the worst quarterbacks in the league when pressured is a 66. So he basically becomes, you know, one of the worst quarterbacks in the league when pressured. And this has always really been the case. I mean, but these numbers are even worse than in the past. And he's facing pressure quite a bit after that game, which of course ramped up the numbers for sure. But he's the fifth most pressured per dropback quarterback in the nfl and i just want you to apologize to everyone for claiming they had a good offensive line early in the year i just

sorry why would you do that you're the you're you're an offensive lineman you were supposed to be the expert on the show to tell us whether it's a good offensive line or not what happened listen the tackles are great the tackles fantastic. But when you lose your left tackle and then you have a rookie that starts hot and just I don't know what happened, but his soul has left his body. He no longer is there. He is just a shell standing in there at left guard, at right guard. And then Ezra Cleveland is Jekyll and Hyde again. It's who was he?

Was he the guy from Buffalo throwing dudes around? Or is he the guy that has turnstile for arms and stands there? It's such an inconsistency thing, and the definition of good offensive line play from a group to an individual is consistency. And so we've been so inconsistent at that position, and really the middle interior being more of the inconsistent than the edges, that it's just started to wear on defenses because they know now, OK, fine.

We'll just send middle pressure instead of trying to get off the edges. And we can win with only sending our three technique when we know the center sliding away because he's going to win that one on one matchup against Ingram or he's going to win it against Cleveland. Like they just know that. So, yeah, I am sorry, Vikings land. I apologize, but you got they tricked me. They do me. I drank the purple Kool-Aid on the inside, and I just won't do it again. I can't do it again.

I will not claim it until we rush the ball more effectively. Well, on the right guard position, I mean, you are not wrong that he started out the first couple of weeks and look totally fine. Yes. And then it just somewhere along the line well i mean i think a major part of it is teams are super good at spotting whoever the mark is and once they do oh man i mean they start a lot of teams and of course dallas didn't need to do this but a lot of teams have run like five man pressures so everyone has to go one-on-one i mean they are just making sure that they find who's the weak guy and how are we going to attack them and this tells you something too

about like pff grades always have to be in context because garrett bradbury's grades have been a little better because teams are like oh we found someone worse like we found someone that we're going to attack even more i think that you are right about the pressure on Kirk Cousins being the major cause of his statistics. I also think that with this offense, and we've seen it in Los Angeles, when it doesn't have an elite offensive line, it struggles. I mean, the Rams offensive line has been hurt a lot and they have been horrendous this year on offense. Last year, number one pass blocking in the league, and they're great because I think that these routes take a long time to develop. And if you can't block it up, you just end up with a lot of pressure, a lot of sacks, a lot of throwaways.

I believe Kirk is either number one or number two in the league in throwaways also. I mean, so I think that there really does need to be some serious adjustments here because you may have this huge lead. You definitely do. Eight and two, you should be very happy. You don't have to give those wins back or apologize for them, but there's still seven football games to go this season and you got to win some of them. I mean, you can't have your offense score three points and we'll get to the defensive side of it. I know some people ask me like, why did you focus so much on the offense after the game? Because if you punt seven times in a row, you're going to give up a lot of points to a team

that has CD lamb and Tony Pollard and Dak Prescott. Like that's going to happen. This defense, this defense ain't winning you a six to three football game. It's just not going to happen without Delvin Tomlinson. It wasn't going to happen against anybody pretty much, right? That's just not who they are. Um um but those statistics though are pretty stunning considering what cousins has done over his career and my thought was midway through the season well they actually won games with kind of the down kirk you know if he hits that upswing that he usually does at some point but i don't know if it's coming like the way that they have struggled to get the ball to like kj osborne the the struggle to throw the ball to Delvin Cook.

It has been so much the Jefferson offense that I mean, even TJ Hawkinson was kind of taken out of this game and a little bit took himself out of the game with a drop and and maybe a misplay along the sideline. But I mean, adding a tight end is great. It's I don't know if it's enough to push them up to the point where you feel like, oh, they've got a bunch of weapons that are all clicking in unison. There's just a lot of guys who are underperforming what they have in the past other than Justin Jefferson. Yeah. And I think a lot of it just comes back to are those guys just assuming Jefferson's going to just be fine and he's just going to do it. And then all of a sudden it's like, oh, it's not working. And they just don't have these reps together. Right. The in-game reps of Kirk to Osborne and Kirk to Thielen, like they just haven't been there this year. And so when all of a sudden it's like, man, we got to figure out

how to make something happen. Like those guys just aren't winning. And I don't, I'd have to study the receiver tape a little bit more to know like are they just truly not getting open or is it just the fact that you know Kirk's missing some of them but I think that when it's all encompassing like that like it's it's a piece of everybody it's the receivers it's the running back it's Jefferson it's Kirk it's Dalvin like it's it's all of it but I just I can't belabor the point anymore but it all starts up front like every single piece of that starts up front. Kirk can be on the upswing, but it's like Jefferson said, if he's getting sacked before dudes are out there break,

I don't care if it's a seven yard slant. That means someone's in his teeth right away. And there's hands up right away, like until the front gets fixed. And I mean, apparently Chris Reed murdered somebody and is not allowed to play football because why is he not playing? I don't understand. Like, he's got to get a shot.

Eddie Ingram, I love you, dude. You're a rookie. I know we talked about not letting your confidence shake, but after that performance, it is time to try something different. And Chris Reed is a proven veteran in this league. He's got to take it. He's got to get a shot.

He's got to get an opportunity because until we fix it up front, Kirk's going to continue to get more rattled. The run game is going to continue to sputter and teams are going to continue to attack that position. And we have to get it fixed. I mean, that should have been the wake up call we kind of talked about, which is when you're winning, you can't just be like, oh, this guy is benched because then everyone's going to go like, hey, come on. I mean, we're doing just fine. But when you have a loss like that, also on a short week, though, might be difficult when you're already changing left tackles to then also change right guard.

So then you're talking about two-fifths of the line being completely different from what it's been. But Chris Reid is veteran enough that he should be able to step in if they need him. And I do think that as a coach, you probably struggle with this is our record. This is where we stand and we're like looking pretty darn good. But then how do I make these changes also? Because if you're now looking at the last three games, Washington, it took until the fourth quarter to get to double digit points. You're down 27, 10 in Buffalo, and you have to make miraculous

catches to come back. Like you deserve all the credit in the world for doing it, but like, that's not a position you want to be in. And then you lose 40 to three. So then you look around and you're like, there's some cracks in the foundation here that you have to find a way to fix and you have to push some buttons. So I guess that's what i was going to ask about the offense is just like where's your where's your concern meter you know the the blue and the yellow and all that like where is your concern meter about how they're going to be able to navigate some of these good defenses that they're going to face going forward here i'm in the yellow i think i'm in the yellow which is basically kind of right in the middle because i think we're at a really critical like turning point of the season here.

We've had a lot of success early on winning football games. We've learned how to handle winning really well. I'm really curious to see how this regime and how this team handles losing. How do they handle getting their tails handed to them? What is the mentality? Is it the leaders step up and the Patrick Petersons and the Smiths of the world are like, hey, I've been here. Here's how we're going to just go about this. Or is it something where the cracks in the armor start turning into just huge, glaring problems?

Right. I think for a long time, because we've been eight and two, we've been putting band-aids over open heart surgery here. Like plug the plug here, plug here. But now it's it's got to be OK. Everything was on full display on Sunday. All of the issues, issues everything where do we address first and how do we address it's going to be really interesting of how this koc and everyone does this because this will be the first time we've seen it this year you know this with the loss to philly was it wasn't great but you know we were able to string games back together but all the success came tumbling down like is it a we picked right back up where we

left that was a fluke or is it like wow we've got to basically start from the ground up on offense and defense here and kind of rebuild ourselves for the back half of this season you know so I'm not real sure what the answer for how to get it fixed all right away but I will be curious as to where the points of emphasis this short week were to fix the issues. I really like the way you phrased that. Critical point in the season feels totally right because you have a quick turnaround, and then the Jets are kind of in peril a little bit with their quarterback, but also look at their defense.

Their defense is phenomenal, and that could be one of those low-scoring battles, so you have to figure it out. And I think it also is going to tell us something about their ability to figure it out, because if they win this, they win the Jets game and they start cruising, they're going to face the Lions in Detroit, which is never a super easy game. And the Lions are starting to play some better football now. Indianapolis is playing hard for Jeff Saturday. I guess they want to kind of prove people wrong after getting criticized a lot there.

But guess what Indianapolis has? Good defensive line. Guess what the New York Giants have? Good defensive line. Like they're going to face a lot of serious challenges. It's not going to get easier where you just have some, you know, easy teams to block up and you'll be fine. There's going to be pressure on the quarterback and how they adapt.

I think will tell us a lot because if you stumble down the stretch here and you end up with 10 or 11 wins and you've had a bunch of disappointing losses down the stretch of the second half of the season, I mean, then we're still going to look around and be like, you know, fluky, right? Like that first half was fluky. So their goal needs to be prove that it wasn't. Like make the adjustments to prove that it wasn't rather than letting this snowball and pile up because you can lose three games in the NFL in an eye blank,

and then all of a sudden you go from the darlings of the league to just another team. They can't let that happen. They also can't give up 40 points on defense. You're right about that. And I know it took us a while to get to this, but I thought that defensively they didn't get after the quarterback, which is a big deal, but also like playmakers making plays for Dallas. You have to credit Tony Pollard, CeeDee Lamb, and Dak Prescott is a darn good quarterback. Nobody can tell me that Dak Prescott isn't a really great quarterback because every time I've seen him play against

the Vikings, he's making great plays. He rips them apart. So I don't know. I don't know how to come away from that other than this is kind of who your defense is going to be. If you don't hold the ball out on offense and you don't score points on offense, you're not going to win games with a defense that especially is dinged up. Andrew Booth Jr. is out there playing. He was on the injury report again. This is the, I don't know, fourth or fifth injuries he had just this year like there's going to be some weaknesses on this defense and i don't know if there's an easy answer to fix that i mean the easy thing too and i was looking it up right now and

forgive me i don't have in front of me but did we have any turnovers no that's yeah that's that's a huge piece you know how have we won games how i couldn't remember if we had one fumble or not. You know, but the way we've won games is turnovers. We've ripped the ball away from Smith-Marset at the end of the game, or we picked off Josh Allen, right? Like, the defense has been really good about finding ways to get turnovers and steal possessions for an offense. And we didn't do that one time against Dallas.

And when you're going against an offense that has the playmakers like that, and they were clicking on all cylinders. You've got to give credit to Dallas, too. They've been so up and down. They got handed to them in Green Bay. And they came out, and they found a way to make sure that they could click. And when a team in the NFL, I don't really care what any team it is, when you're clicking on all cylinders, you're hard to beat.

And when you have a defense who's getting out to the quarterback and an offense that is established in the run and you got guys breaking big plays down the field, like you're going to run into a buzzsaw occasionally. But I think the bigger issue that the Vikings are facing is we talk about offense like our secondary is a problem. Our secondary is an issue. You know, Patrick Peterson is great.

He is what he is. But when you're missing key pieces in your secondary, there's too many good receivers in the NFL. And then you tag team that with the piggyback of Darius Smith is not 100%. When you're missing key pieces in your secondary, there's too many good receivers in the NFL. And then you tag team that with the piggyback of Z'Darrius Smith is not 100%. You and I have set it to exhaustion on the show. If those two guys and Daniil Hunter and Z'Darrius Smith are not 100%, we just can't get to the quarterback. We just can't because it's like, oh, well, they're not both out here.

Well, let's just slide to one of them. You slide to one of them and then you're saying, hey, other tackle, you handle old Wanham over there and we'll be good to go. And that's what happened. And we weren't able to just consistently get after him. And I think that unless we find ways to scheme up and get to the quarterback with blitzing, which is always a dangerous thing to do in this league, but I think that's going to be the answer of how do we get the ball out of the quarterback's hand quicker as we have to start sending five or sending six occasionally folks if you're looking for a way to celebrate minnesota's insane football season go to sodastick.com see all the different designs from kirko chains to the gritty to everything

skull related sodastick s-o-t-a-s-t-i-c-k.com and use the code purple insider for 15% off your purchase. I also think that we do have to start giving Kellen Moore some credit for being a pretty good offensive mind, him putting two tight ends out there, knowing that Delvin Tomlinson was no, he also knew how the Vikings would handle that. Delvin Tomlinson's out, which cannot be underscored.

I mean, the guy was one of the 15 best defensive tackles by PFF grade before he had the calf injury, how good he is. But they know that they don't put another linebacker on the field. They put a fifth defensive lineman. So that means Jonathan Bullard, James Lynch, along with Harrison Phillips, who's been very good this year. But those guys are backups. I mean, so you end up with two backups on the defensive line,

and then your defensive ends or your outside linebackers are wide. I mean, that's a lot of opportunity to run the ball, especially when you're a team like Dallas that runs the ball so effectively. They put so much emphasis on it. You could really see it. There were opportunities to run all over the place. And I think that in previous weeks against Buffalo, against

Washington, where the defense was flat out excellent, was against the run. Those teams don't run very well. Then you face a team that does. I think this is what New England will try to do to them, is put a couple tight ends on the field if Tomlinson isn't ready, which is not really sure if he's going to be ready or

not. If he's not ready to go on Thursday, I think they're going to do the same thing. They're going to look at it and go, why not put two tight ends on the field, make you put those extra defensive linemen out there who are just not guys that are supposed to play 50 plays in a game and take advantage and run the football effectively. I think that should be their biggest fear against New England. Yeah, and New England's great at game planning i mean what what they do is they might not have the flashiest toys but they've schemed up ways to win football games i mean i think back to the wind game in buffalo last year where they threw the ball like three times right like they're going to test you

especially on a short week like we talked about did they make the corrections necessary but this is almost one of those words like is it a correction or is it a personnel issue? And if it's a personnel issue, then it's just got to be guys making plays. Like you can't scheme a way to stop the run if guys just are getting double teamed off the ball and gap integrity is suffering because of it. And Eric Kendricks has got Lynch sitting in his lap

so he can't run through and make a play in the backfield like we've seen him do over and over when Tomlinson and Linville used to be there and all that stuff so you know i think that i would like to see us maybe switch some stuff up where if they go 12 personnel two tight ends like you know maybe you bring an extra linebacker on maybe you shut you shift over into an over front or you know kind of shifting that under put the sam linebacker up on the ball type of thing you know try and play some more gaps but again i think that also comes back to running pressure. There's run blitzes, you know, running certain run blitzes, whether it's a Sam off the edge or a Will off the edge, you know,

just something that gets guys slanting and moving that isn't having those backup guys having to say, hey, stand in the B gap and take these two starting tackles on, you know, say cross this guy's face, try and slice through this gap, try and get disruption here, because it's a feast or famine type of thing. There's a lot of times where teams that move a lot, they also give up a lot of explosive plays, because if you get one guy out of their gap that gets stopped by an offensive lineman, like there's a huge hole there. But on the flip side, if you can get through and split a double team because you're slanting, you're gonna be standing in the backfield with a chance for a TFL. So I think that if you have a team that's just going to continuing downhill run at you and just try and get it in between the tackles,

change it up with some run blitzes and some stunts up front might be a good way to just try and protect some of those younger backup players. Do you think that they bounce back? I do. You know, I do. And I think a lot of it's going to be predicated on how well we can protect and how well we adjust. Like Jefferson said, if we come out and try to do the same game plan against Dallas, we're going to lose. But if we try and come out and say, OK, quick screens, quick slants, run game on offense, let's lean on that.

And then we'll take secondary like down the field shots will be our secondary option. And like I'm not talking about not getting just Justin Ball. Throw him the quick receiver screen. I'm fine with that. Get the ball in his hands, right? But also like rely on number four and rely on 18 to get the ball in their hands quickly. And then on defense, you know, I think stopping the run is going to be the number one thing.

If we can go out there and stop the run and make Mac Jones have to throw the ball, then yeah, I think we'll be okay. Because again, it's going to be a war of who can establish the run. I think both teams are going to have very similar game plans going into this game. But I do think overall the Vikings have a better roster.

I think when they're healthy, they definitely have a better roster. So a lot's going to depend on the injury report. But coming off the short week, veteran quarterback versus a younger quarterback, I do think that that gives us the advantage. But also veteran head coach versus new-time head coach handling the week you know there's there's definitely if you put the things and just kind of go who has what side to side it's a pretty even matchup on that side besides i think that our roster is just better i think so too and that is definitely with the health asterisk though because if they get tomlinson back that's a massive deal huge piece um i don't know what

cam dantzler's deal is, but they didn't put either of those guys on IR. And yet it's been a few weeks. It's like normally if someone's not put on IR that they'll come back in like two weeks, but that hasn't happened for either one of those guys. Dantzler being out, I think has been a pretty big deal.

And then a Caleb Evans getting hurt after showing, you know, it's really some talent there. So yeah, I mean, I think it's, I think it it's it's going to be a very tough game for them. But I do think that they win it. I think they have enough veterans to be able to put what just happened in the past. And I also think that Mac Jones might throw you the football one or two times that they are, especially someone like Patrick Peterson, Harrison Smith, good enough to make the play when they get that opportunity.

I mean, look, they scored three points last week, the Patriots. And Matt Patricia is running their offense, like the worst coach in football. So you should have an opportunity. Love to see it, hate to see it. Where would you like to go? You know, I'm going to go hate to see it um Zach Wilson you hate to see just terrible terrible offense I mean Robert Salyer with the how's the offense dog like that was just it was so painful

to watch that game was miserable to play and watch and just not good and I hated everything about it mostly because I think the the jets our defense has made such a great turnaround but zach wilson has also just been so hot or cold but you hate to see a guy like that go out and play like that and then have someone i saw a quote today i was like his ceiling is patrick mahomes level i was like patrick mahomes never did that patrick mahomes never did that shut up don't talk like that don't you ever don't you mention their names in the same breath like no so i. So I hated it. I hated that game.

I hated Zach Wilson. You actually can't mention Patrick Mahomes name in anyone's breath. I mean, just anyone. I mean like chargers people, they want to be like, Oh, Herbert and Mahomes.

Like, no, it's not. No, it's just not. It's not. This man has been to the AFC championship, Superbowl,

Superbowl, AFC championship. He's thrown 400 passes an average 8.2 yards per attempt. That's about as efficient as football exists in this universe. Like that, this is just an alien. Okay. It's, this is totally completely next level, all time, great football play. So I see that all the time of like, Oh, is this guy as good as Mahomes? Like, no, like I saw Colin Coward was like, Caleb Williams could be the next one. Like, no, stop it. Stop it.

He could be very good. But next Mahomes is like, okay, well, come in and have the best four years anyone has ever had in history. Cool. Anyway, but that's not the point. Zach Wilson, also, grow up, pal. Like, when you let down your team, you have to take ownership of that or you lose the locker room fast because quarterback, it's about leadership. It's about toughness.

It's about finding a way. Like for a lot of quarterbacks, that's it. When you see guys who have like journeyman careers that are really not that talented at all, what does it usually come down to? It usually comes down to the guy's got some heart, right? And he just like finds a way and he's going to do everything he possibly can. And at the end of the game, he's going to take responsibility. And Zach Wilson's got to learn a lesson there.

And I think the Jets would be right to just go back to Joe Flacco. Like Joe Flacco's won in the league before. He won them a couple of games early on the season or at least one. Like, I don't know. At least Joe Flacco is going to handle it like a grownup as opposed to Zach Wilson being just a privileged child, I guess. I mean, he just, that's the way it struck out to me is just like, what? I didn't do anything wrong. You scored three points. You lost like, dude,

you did a lot wrong. It's seven yards in the second half. I mean, it's just, just absolutely embarrassing performance. And then acting like, what, why is everyone questioning me? Like, I don't know, man. Couldn't figure it out. I guess we're all looking for the person who did this um so that yeah that the way he handled that was definitely i hate to see it um as far as also hate to see it from my perspective people who are saying oh the bills should have played in that snowstorm you don't understand like those snowstorms are dangerous. Like very, like because people are in Minnesota or other places,

there's very few places where it snows like that. So they'd be like, Oh, that would have been an awesome snow game. Like, no, no, no,

no. That would have been extremely dangerous for the entire city. It shuts down the city. Every, every time they have one of those snowstorms, people die. Like people get stuck in their cars. It's,

it's, it's very, very, very scary stuff. and it needs to be taken seriously so like it sounds cute online to tweet like oh i love snow games i should yes yes three four inches of snow coming down it's majestic it's hilarious sometimes that is five feet of snow man they had to dig bills players out of their houses okay this is this is different stuff so hated to see people

not understanding natural disasters even richard sherman he's like and he tweeted like and they still don't want to dome and i i think reed ferguson tweeted back and i'm like sorry we don't dome our highways and streets like that was the main problem was just public safety but man i thought the videos were cool i thought the video was neat. Dogs in the snow. Love to see it. Dogs in the snow. Love to see it. My love to see it is going to be we're going college football rivalry week. You know, I love rivalry week.

It's so much fun. Like, I wish Nebraska was worth a shit so that they could play Iowa and be fun with it. But they're just not. But, you know, Ohio State, Michigan, Alabama, Auburn, like you just have so many good games this weekend to put a stamp on the college football season, which I love because, you know, Ohio State, Michigan, Alabama, Auburn, like you just have so many good games this weekend to put a stamp on the college football season, which I love because, you know,

both seasons kind of falling off with the CFP and like guys don't play and opt out and it's fine. But, you know, this is kind of my favorite college football weekend of the year. I mean, definitely hate to see it was Minnesota, Iowa, just for all of like football and it's just set football back like 50 years um hey abraham though 263 yards rushing over 300 yards total on the day like that dude can't walk for multiple days and he gets a win so real quick before i uh

love to see it is just uh so my furnace had some problems and I had and so some a guy was fixing it and he was like oh you're not watching the gopher game and I was like no because I like football so I'm like no man no I don't like spending my Saturday with sadness yes sorry man not watching the gopher game my i love to see is jimmy garoppolo because jimmy garoppolo's own team didn't believe in him spent how many draft picks to draft somebody else they didn't trade him he had this injury he had every reason to like not be ready to go and just like whatever bleep you could have pulled the carson palmer just like i'm not playing you get you guys got your own problems use cj bethard or whoever the hell else is on this team.

And instead, this man is leading a team that I think could go to the Super Bowl. The way they just bludgeoned Arizona, the way their offense is operating right now, Christian McCaffrey has been a great fit for them, and Jimmy G is just getting better every single week and more confident, and it's like he's sticking it to his own team. I love to see it. I never really understood why. I get it.

Oh, everybody was into let's find the next Josh Allen or whatever. But when this guy went to an NFC championship and he went to the Super Bowl and his own team is still like, I don't know, man, maybe. Well, good for you. Good for you, James. Yeah, they're going to be hard out. I mean, they may not win the division. They still may.

But, you know, I think that no one's going to want to play them in the playoffs. Nobody. With that physical style of offense that they play and watching Nick Bosa, his getoff is absolutely insanity. Like, he is one full step and, like, no one else has moved on the entire football team. Like, I don't know if it's the way he studies snap counts or if it's the way that he is just so quick Twitch that second that ball moves he's just got everything firing but he is playing in an absolutely insanely high level for a defensive end right now the Vikings need to root for San Francisco the rest of the

way because they do not want them as the number seven seed I think the Vikings will probably end up playing Seattle if things kind of go the way we expect but it's the NFL so they may not want them as the number seven seed. I think the Vikings will probably end up playing Seattle if things kind of go the way we expect, but it's the NFL. So they may not, uh, Jeremiah, great stuff.

Terrific breakdown. We will talk again. I assume we'll just go next Tuesday, right? Let's just keep it with it. We'll just stay on the, yeah, exactly.

Enjoy the Turkey day. Uh, yes. Enjoy your Thanksgiving, the best to you and your family. And, uh, we will talk again soon.

Football, football.