Purple Insider - a Minnesota Vikings and NFL podcast - Is Jeremiah Sirles sold on JJ McCarthy after Vikings win?

Episode Date: November 4, 2025

Former Viking Jeremiah Sirles joins the show to recap the Vikings' win over the Lions and whether he's sold on J.J. McCarthy. The Purple Insider podcast is brought to you by FanDuel. Also, check out our sponsor HIMS at https://hims.com/purpleinsider Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See https://pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Hey, everybody, welcome to another episode of Purple Insider, presented by Fandul. Matthew Collar here for another episode of Tuesday morning left guard with former Minnesota Viking Jeremiah Searle. And I've heard Jeremiah that, and this is just maybe from some sources close to you, that you actually have brandished a crown yourself. you have gone into blacksmithing and you made a crown and your plan is to drive up here from Nebraska to Minnesota

and place it on J.J. McCarthy's head to officially 100%. Yeah. And then when he has a bad game, I'm going to come up there with the machete and take it off of him, right? Because that's just the game in which we play now, which is let's crown and kill in a matter of a week by week basis on how we feel about J.J. McCarthy. Um, no, but all, I mean, he played great for coming back from what he was. And the best part for me is it looked like he gave this team a lightning bolt shot in the

art. Yeah. And that's, that's really what I saw when I watched the tape. It was not J.J. McCarthy came in and won this football game. It was the Minnesota Vikings played as a team. Everyone took their turn. Brian Flores called his best game as a Vikings defensive coordinator in my opinion.

And everyone rose to. our starting quarterback is back and play to that level. And when this team plays to that level, the talent is all over the field and you can see it, but I feel like the last few weeks and nothing against Carson Wentz, but people were just spinning their wheels.

Like just in mud, just trying to find anything that would stick. There was no excitement. There was no juice. But man, that kid has something. It's juice and he can definitely bring it. And there was no question about that that everyone kind of reached a crossroads with this season and said,

what do we want to be? Like, I mean, I think it was for coaches, for players, for everybody involved of do you want to be a team that just kind of fades into the background of the NFL this year and starts to do draft simulations in early December? Or do you want to get back in this race? And with J.J. McCarthy, the energy that he brings. And I don't just mean energy as in like, oh, he's jumping around and he's doing the dog thing that he's doing. Or he's given speeches before the game. What I mean is actual. energy with his playing style. And there's a few different moments for him where you can really see it. I mean, I think the touchdown to T.J. Hawkinson, where when you see somebody roll out and then rip it back across their body and bang, touchdown, it's like, okay, that right there is the playmaking that we've been missing, the arm strength that we've been missing. And I would also say that when things got really hairy in the middle of the game and he did

make some mistakes, it didn't melt him just like in. Chicago and he was making plays and he was scrambling and he's doing everything he can. He did take some sacks, but it felt like at any given moment, there was a big play about to pop. It never felt like it was just a stuck in the mud offense and it wasn't going anywhere. And that does come back to him because there's always an exciting play around the corner with him where he can throw three, four times inaccurately and then throw that ball to Jordan Addison that he had on the deep out route where it's kind of.

of the levels thing. And, you know, it's just like, whoa, okay. Like, that's it. And that's what I take away from this if we're trying to do a big thing. It's a bigger picture. It's not crowning J.J. McCarthy. For me, it's just all the bones of what we expect to see from him were there in this football game. It also was the second highest amount of runs called that Kevin O'Connell's had this year. So I think that plays a factor into what let's not all put it on J.J. McCarthy. Let's get Aaron Jones back involved. Let's get Jordan Mason back involved. Let's get our outside zone and then our change up of our downhill duo play with 12 personnel and Josh Oliver and put an extra tight ends in. Like, it just seemed like COC called a very good game plan for

JJ McCarthy. And he was able to execute and there was definitely some things in there where you're like, okay, rookie mistakes, right? Like those are going to come and those are going to go. But there was enough positives to point a way that you can go, okay, it looks like there's more positives here than the oh my gosh rookie mistakes pieces it's just going to be a matter of i'm pretty sure we're going to ride that wave every single week it's going to be a feast or famine type of thing with him until he settles into a true rhythm of understanding how to manage the game from start to finish and do that piece there because whenever you as a fan and as a player feel like that big plays on the horizon it can press and it can press and then also that big play i mean if

that DB doesn't tug on Jefferson there across the middle. That's a big interception that he throws, right? There's a couple of theirs where there's tip balls because he's holding on to it for just a half second too late and the guy gets home instead of getting rid of the football. And so when you're playing this game of big playability or death, it's hard to live in the middle. It's hard to live in the game management piece there. And that's just something that's going to take time and work for him.

But I think continuing to get back with a healthier offensive line, continuing to rely on the run game a little bit more. more if you feel like that's what we need to do. I think that this is back in this race. And thank you, Green Bay Packers, for absolutely pooping the bed against Carolina and putting this thing back into it. And now you're looking, Chicago has a pulse again. You're going, okay, this is going to be a race to the finish in the NFC North.

Let's see if JJ can stay healthy and keep that energy going forward. I think you make a great point about in the middle of the game. And we are going to need to see this not just from McCarthy, but also from Kevin O'Connell with play calling as well, where McCarthy can really get you excited about where you're at and what's going on. To the point where you're like, well, you know, he just ripped that one pass. Like maybe we need to

just rip some more passes. And it's a great example, the called back interception, because that could have been a devastating mistake. And he didn't know that that flag had been called. So what he did there was he tried to do something heroic when

you need to do something simple. And O'Connell on Monday mentioned this is kind of like one of those, you know, messages to J.J. McCarthy that there is a play where Addison is going deep, where Jefferson looks open, and he checks it down to Aaron Jones. And his message is, that's cool, dude. Like, that's, that's good. It's all right. Like, let Jordan Addison get this steps in. That's all right. Like, maybe we had a 40-yard play there. But if you get a nine-yard play, that is a plus. In the NFL, the average yards per play is like 4.7 or something like that. If you get a seven-yard

pass you are ahead of the sticks you're you're getting ahead there you're putting yourself in a good situation so don't let your exciting plays and your want and you can tell like that how bad he just wants to be the guy and this is another part of him in general that it's the reason that you draft him in part i think is well of course athletic traits are there but you also believe that he's not going to get knocked off his spot that he wants this as bad as he wants uh as he wants anything in the world that when he takes some hits, which he walked into a couple times, but when he does his little somersaults after getting drilled by somebody, it's going to come back and he's not going to suddenly go, uh-oh, I'm in trouble. I'm going to turtle. And in both

games where he's been successful, we didn't see any of that. Yeah. And I mean, it's so funny because we're sitting, we're talking about a three game sample size, right? And it's, we're trying to paint a full picture. Right. I mean, we have the black and white colors in our paint palette right now. And they're like, draw me a Picasso, man. Let's see what you got. And we're sitting there going, I don't know what I necessarily have. I have this small sample size. And I want to project. And I want to think it's going to be this. And I want to think it's going to be that. But next week, it could be so totally

and completely different that we don't really know. And so while I'm super excited for what he brought to this team, me being the negative Vikings fan, I guess, that says, I want to see it for an extended period of time before I rendered. judgment on what this kid is, I think it's a fair thing to ask because, man, you talk about polar opposites from fourth quarter of Chicago to Atlanta. Everyone's going head scratch or what are we doing. Sure, he might have had the ankle sprained and fought through it. But man, this week against the Ravens, whole different test, right? You went on the road, you got the pregame judges at your back. Okay, well, guess what? You just put a whole week of game plan tape out of what this

offense looks like with Jay Jim Cartney. Totally different than what it looked like with Carson wants. So now the Ravens have that tape to go off of and then go back and look at the Chicago tape. And now can you adapt and adjust within the week, Kevin O'Connell, JJ McCarthy, offensive line, and say, okay, this is what we have to do this week, right? Because that's part of what's playing quarterback in the NFL makes it so difficult versus college. Right? When you're in college and you're the guy, it's, hey, we're worried about us. We'll do what we do and see if they can stop it. In the NFL, it's very much a week by week thing. Okay, we got to change this. We got to now do this. We got to do this. And that just takes time and growth. And that's

where JJ's going to have to continue to grow as being the starting quarterback and then take that time and growth on the practice field in the meeting room and convert it to points and completions on Sundays. Well, where you can really help him a lot is in plays that are easy button, which I thought that Kevin O'Connell had a few of those. And I would say there were, no, that was a handoff. That's, come on NFL. Like, that's a, that's a, if you're McCarthy, like my yards per attempt should have been maybe like at least a yard or two higher, uh, if it's just a 31 yard swing pass as opposed to a 31 yard run. And Aaron Jones is like, that looks good for me. Um, that was a pass. But, uh, that play in particular was a great example of how Kevin O'Connell can understand

defense is extremely well where they're going to be, where they're going to be helping with Justin Jefferson. And on that play, that swing pass that got Jones wide open, the safety, is all the way on the other side of the field and all you need is that box safety to bite a little bit and then you're just in open space and they got that with the fake handoff to Jordan Mason and my thing would be don't be afraid to go back to obviously not that same exact look in that same play

or maybe you run out of it instead the next time but go back to plays like that throughout the game not just hey this is our early strategy and we've got these kind of played up you know dialed up But more of that, because I felt like in the middle of the game, that's when it started to get more into, hey, it's JJ, it's shotgun, it's empty, or it's Jordan Mason trying to block someone's helmet, I guess. He was so high on one of those blocks. I was like, that's not, nope, that's not how that's done. But Jack Campbell is really good.

So, you know, yeah, he deserves credit as well. But the point just being that don't get so excited for him as the play caller either about how JJ's playing. that you just start saying, you know what? Actually, remember, we did all this stuff with Sam Darnold last year. Why don't you just do that? Like, don't go away from get the ball in the hands of your playmakers in simple ways. 100%. I mean, I couldn't agree more. And I thought that there was so many good play calls in this game, friendly quarterback play calls in this game that had both options down the field if it was there and then a really good checkdown because when you have Addison and Jefferson, and those safeties have to make decisions of bail and make sure they don't go over the head

or stay underneath and take away the short stuff and trust our edges on the corner's piece. And as the more I look at, I'm going, man, this is great for a young quarterback because it's, hey, if that safety wants to come over and take Hawk on the hook curl, now you're one-on-one with Jefferson. Give the kid a shot, right? Give Jefferson a shot one-on-one. That's not a 50-50 ball with a guy like 18. That's more like a 70-30 ball with that guy. And so you have those moments there.

But what I really liked was running the football behind. and Darisaw and Donovan Jackson this week. I thought those two guys played really well next to each other. They're just continuing to get better and better as a group goes there. And it's about taking pressure off of JJ, man. If you can run the football, it makes life so much easier because as a quarterback, second and six is a lot more fun than second and ten. Yep.

No, that's absolutely true. And I think that it also shows you that when things start to roll offensively, it has momentum to it. And we'll talk about this with the defense, too, that if you want to talk about where momentum is real or not real, well, when you get going and then all of a sudden you can run the ball, then everything starts to come together. And this was some of their best running. Although, again, yards per attempt is a little wonky when you change it by 31. But they, but no, but they did. They did run, I think, more effectively than they have. And part of it because you're getting ahead in the football game. Well, let's talk about the offensive line. I texted you. about this. I in this game thought it was the best test for Donovan Jackson. You're playing

a lay McNeil, great player, DJ Reader, great player, a defense that's gotten more creative with its blitzing as J.J. McCarthy found out. And there's a few plays. One in particular. So people will remember the long pass to Addison that went for 30 yards early in the game where he's kind of rolling to his left, where Donovan Jackson takes a lay McNeil completely out of the play and then they stun, because he kind of takes him that way, and then they sort of stunt. And then he picks that up, too, and gives JJ that entire left side to throw the ball. I think Donovan Jackson had a breakout game and kind of a arrived type of game on Sunday. I agree.

You know, it was probably the best. I know he played really well against Chicago in that first game of the year. But this is his second best game in the year, if not his best game overall with just a ability to get into a feel and not look like he's surviving out there, but being a contributor at the left guard position. which is not it's easy to be a detriment it's really hard to be a difference maker and i felt like donovan jackson and i'm even going to say brian o'neill were difference makers in this game i mean the battle i i went back and rewatch the tape just to watch brian o'neill versus aid hutchinson like i watched nothing else i literally i just fast forwarded through the tape every time and i just watched 75 verse 97 i mean good on good great on great and just how those two guys played and they

both got each other at times and they worked back and forth i mean aiden hutchinson is so special and so looking at what he was able to do and then looking at what derisaw was able to do in that piece there not excuse me not darisovin jackson like you're just seeing guys get better and get better and when you have a young core core right when you're talking about brandle and donovan two guys that have never played next to each other one guy's in a brand new position one guy's a first year starter in the NFL watching how those two continue to work well with each other too is really fun how they're reading double teams, how they passed off some of those stunts where they were twisting and sending Jack and moving guys around. Like, I just feel like everything is starting to click

for that left side. And a lot of it's because 71's back, right? When 71's back, you can do a lot more things inside because you're like, you got it, buddy, good luck. And then you just forget that he's there for the rest of the game. It's been pretty fun to watch when he's back and playing what the interior two on that left side can do. Between the two of them, two quarterback pressures in the entire game. And if you're going to play that way, you're going to have plenty of time to throw. You're going to feel really, really good about your team. And there is a reason why offensive tackles are paid 30 plus million dollars a year because if the guy is that good. And that's why, you know, look, the Atlanta game, I think when you have shortcomings and McCarthy will in the

future, they will be shortcomings. There will be matchups that you're not getting on the offensive line or somebody's out or, you know, Brandl played, I thought, really well. And in this game, but against Philadelphia, they attacked him all day with Jalen Carter and that was a mismatch that they were going to lose. You do have to make sure that you don't make catastrophic mistakes when that happens. And for as good as Brian O'Neill battled Aidan Hutchinson, he still ends up with seven pressures in the game because he's as good as anybody. And to not have big mistakes come out of those pressures, I thought was very important for McCarthy in the offense because they've honestly, as silly as it sounds, they've gotten good punch. They've gotten good

punting this year and in this game the punting was huge like okay a drive failed punted away pin a team all the way back teams are not prepared these days to drive 95 yards anymore since they're used to getting the ball at the 40 yard line so like make jared golf drive all that way that's okay but a fumble there an interception there like stuff like that that's where i thought he did an extremely good job of not making those mistakes and then i think with mccarthy the one thing that you really wanted to see that we took for granted, I think, just like, oh, well, he's a great athlete. So, yeah, he should run in and, like, beat Alex Ancelone one-on-one in space, and that's what he should do.

Coming off of an ankle injury that just kept you out five weeks, coming off of a meniscus injury, he seemed very, very willing to be like, using the legs. And there were a couple times where he took hits because of it. But that right there, I think, can change the math of what you need McCarthy to do. you do not need 250 yards from him passing if you can get touchdowns and first downs when it comes to using his legs. Yeah, and I think that's a little bit of the fact that the kid's just a psycho. Like, I mean, it's like, hey, yeah, I came off an ankle. I came off a knee.

Like, don't care. Right. Like, I think he adopts a little bit of the drogo. Like, if I die, I die. Like, he's here for it. And trust me, that'll lightning bowl the team more than anything. Look what Baker does with his team. When he has those scrambles and gets up and does the first down, I mean, it's just exploding.

across the team. And you saw that on the Vikings sideline. You saw that on the Vikings offense and on the Vikings defense. When JJ made a play with his legs, things just went berserk because whenever your quarterback does something like that, it's a little bit terrifying, but it's also like, God, that's my quarterback, man. That's my guy. Right. And so if you can get that consistently out of J.J. McCarthy for a lot of his time, then that's great. But you run a risk whenever your quarterback goes, you run that risk of Jaden Daniels, you run that risk of guys getting dinged in that whole piece there. So you don't want to make a living out of it if I'm J.J. McCarthy,

but it is also something that you don't want to be told like, hey, don't run. And that's where KOC has to find that balance. And that's just, again, going to take more than three game sample size to find what that balance is of, hey, don't be afraid to use your legs here. But let's continue to make sure that our eyes are down the field. but also don't force it down the field, five-yard scramble and learn how to slide, right? Sliding is important in this league.

It's important to protect yourself or dive or do whatever. You don't need to run over these guys to energy bold everything. A seven-yard scramble like Patrick Mahomes does all the time and slides down is just as effective as an eight-yard and you try to put your shoulder through the safety. I also think that when he is scrambling to make plays, that, well, one, hey, man, like he said it after the game. Like, if you're running, just like, let's do it. a little bit of physics here.

If you are running 12 miles an hour, the football will travel 12 miles an hour faster off your hand. Like, that's physics. That's how it works. That's why when you see an outfielder catch a ball on the run and he throws it and they're like, wow, our stat thing says he threw it 120 miles an hour. Like, okay, well, not exactly, but he was move anyway. Learn that from Bill Nye.

But the point just being, yeah, that he has to like re, re, calibrate some of those throws, I think. And he also has to make sure that he's not getting destroyed because he's trying to hang on to that too much. There was the one along the sideline where he rolls out. And he's just like, okay, I can make something happen. You're like, do, do, do, no, no, no, no. And then he gets, then he gets swacked on that. That one throw he had to Jefferson on the sideline and he was on the run. I mean, that thing came out like mock five, right? Right. Even Jefferson kind of looked at him was like, Broski, I'm right here. Like, I'm right here. Just like, two hand pitch it to me instead of just trying to put a bullet through my head like that thing came out of

his hand so fast when he was rolled for like an eight yard comeback round. I think that the fastest throw at the combine is like 68 miles an hour or something. I think that that one was probably like 87. He's on a dead sprint to his right coming forward and Jefferson's standing still. And he's just like, There he is. Yay! It descends it. I was like, oh, boy, that's just something that's going to take time to learn. Because as you, because it's the same thing, right? You're thinking, I got to get it to him. It's like, oh, here comes. Aden Hutchinson's going to kill me. Just get rid of it. Like, that just takes so much time and precision. But what was in what made me feel better about watching that throw and going, oh, my gosh, dude, like calm it down is the last throw of the game. You go to the last throw of the game, right? And it's the same thing. He moves a little bit off his spot. He goes. And then he just gives a little touch, a little. A little. little air and let's Jalen Naylor go up and get it. So then you go, it's there, right? Okay, it is there. That's the first time I have seen that pass from J.J. McCarthy, right?

Even going back to Michigan, right? It seemed like every throw at Michigan was just freaking soo, because they're six yards of separation and it's 30 yards down the field on a play action, right? That was the first time I go, that's in his bag. That's in his bag of tricks he can play with his arm. Okay, now that's there. Now how does he just start to work that more into, okay, there's so many throws you have to make.

And you saw this with Josh Allen. You saw this with Bo Nix. You see this with Drake May. It just is a culmination of reps and playtime. That's the only way you figure that out because in practice, it doesn't happen that fast. The game speed is that fast. And so it was nice to see that throw out of JJ McCarthy at the end of the game and

be able to point to it and go, great. That is actually in his bag. Yes. And I would just say that for all the tools that are required to be an above average starting quarterback in the league, every single one of those were there now it's just a little more often a little more consistent and I mean there's one where you talk about the touch when we're you know joking that he drilled that past to Jefferson and almost put a harpoon through him but when it comes to

even just there's a crossing route for Jefferson and he throws it so hard that Jefferson doesn't really have to dive but it almost just like takes him down to the ground he reaches out and the ball hits him so hard that it like throws him off balance he goes to the ground like no he didn't have to dive where the location was but i think the velocity made that a little bit harder to like stay up in yards after catch so there's a lot of those little things but it's almost him having to convince himself he could do that as well because he hasn't had opportunities to do it so that nailer throw is a oh yes when i do what i'm supposed to do that we practice so much training camp and all those things. It will work. Now, let's go over to the defensive side.

Wow. We got a little trade news here popping in the. Breaking news. The jets are trading sauce Gardner to the Colts. Oh, how about that? Colts are going all in. Colts are in, man. Colts are all in. I mean, why wouldn't you? Why wouldn't you go all in if you've got lightning in a bottle on a quarterback that you have rental for a year before you got to buy the lease? I also never considered that we were recording before the trade deadline, which seems. We always do this. We always do this. We always do this. I don't think there's a big move, but maybe that will be the old takes exposed immediately. So let's get into the defensive side. So you, as an offensive line in the National Football League, you faced every type of pass rush blitz that you could ever dial up from

defensive coordinators. But I don't know how many times I've seen some of the ones that they did where both edge rushers drop out and the four rushers end up being or even five sometimes, but the four rushers are defensive tackles and linebackers hitting the agap. But the linebackers are also stunting. And I was just like, it was kind of one of the original old memes was a guy putting spices on meat. Remember that guy? And then like that was, that felt like it was, yes, that felt like it was Brian Flores in this game. I haven't seen a team run cross dog.

this much since, like, the mid-2000s? Like, this used to be a staple blitz. Like, this used to be, hey, this team is a A-GAP middle-dog cross. This is an A-gap push. Like, it is just one of those things that doesn't really happen as much anymore because you do now have detackles looping to be edge rushers. Right, you can put it in the middle there. But Brian Flores went, all right, Jemir Gibbs, crazy athlete.

Let's beat them up and pass protection. Right. Hey, Eric Wilson, I don't really care if you get a sack, but when you blitz and Jemir Gibbs is in front of you, hit him as hard as physically possible. Because when I went back and watched that film, Eric Wilson was more about beating up on Jemir Gibbs than anything else. Like it was a free six-yard run untouched one-on-one with Jemir Gibbs too many times for this game. And then they started doing that. And so that what happened, Jemir starts throwing shoulders, right? Because he's getting run over. He throws shoulders. He throws shoulders.

And then all of a sudden, he comes with those shoulders. And now that linebacker's picking the center and the guy's wrapping around. And if you don't use your hands in pass protection, can't pass anything off. And so what he did, and I think he ran it, I went back and counted, hold on with my notes. I think he ran it four times in the first two series. Now, he ran this middle dog cross thing in the first four times, first two series, which completely threw J.R. Goff off his game, which threw every, the timing of everything off. And then they come back out and they try and adjust to, okay, we're going to run these screen games.

they're going to be super aggressive in the middle. They're going to try these screens. And then all of a sudden they weren't doing it anymore. And so kudos to Ben, excuse me, kudos to Brian Flores. He had the Lions offense on their heels for pretty much that entire game. They were trying to guess right instead of reacting right, which is not something you usually see from a Jared Gough lion's offense. No, I mean, not at all.

And I also think for the first time that maybe it was a bit of would Ben Johnson have had an answer for that? You have to wonder because now changing offensive coordinators has not been a huge issue for them to this point. But I also think that Brian Flores wanted to test that theory. Yeah. Like, well, let's let's just see how you can adjust to what we're doing. And the answer was you can't. It was all four quarters that those blitzes up the middle were working. And Jared Goff, we know this. We've said it a million in times that I, you know, will fly the flag for Jared Gough all day, but with a caveat that there is this issue with him, especially with interior pressure, that he cannot escape, he cannot throw it on the run. And if his feet get off, and I think it was, Andrew Van Ginkle

told me after the game that that's part of their entire thing is if we could get him off his spot and he can't just stick his feet in the ground and let it rip, that he's not going to be the same quarterback. And he absolutely was not. Now, credit to Gough, They lost by three points and he, you know, hit some big throws in that game still. So it wasn't like they completely collapsed, but that was what you needed against an offense with that much talent was something that was going off of the path. I also don't think that you can run what they ran without Andrew Van Ginkle. I just don't think you can do it because that requires so much trust. Grenard and Van Ginkle drop back in coverage 14 and 13 times respectively.

I think if that's Dallas Turner, you just can't trust to ask him to do that. Yeah, I completely agree. I mean, Van Ginkle's so versatile and he's seen so much ball and his read and react is so great. I mean, he was one of the few guys that had really good success against Pene Soule, right? I mean, I watched Pentezool go out there. I mean, throwing dudes around. I mean, he put Blake Cashman on the ground a few times and he was jump setting Dallas Turner and he was jump setting even Gernard at time. But Ginkle, for whatever reason, just had this.

slipperiness to him that really frustrated Sewell. And so when you can frustrate the best right tackle in the national football league as an edge rusher and then, oh yeah, and drop back and cover on these screen passes, I mean, there was one time where he gets absolutely blasted by Amman Ross St. Brown on a chip block, right? He gets blast. And as he's getting up, he gets over and makes the tackle, right? And it's just a little since you're like, man, he's just a ball player. Like he's just a great football player. He has an acronym where the football goes. Also, Blake Cashman being back was huge. right him being there and being kind of back into his rhythm of how he's playing football again right knocking the rust off that was a huge punch out fumble that he had there when david montgomery goes around the edge he had some big solo tackles and again he is becoming a better blitzer in my opinion from being around guys like ivan pace and eric wilson who are just such physical blitzers that then you bring in a cashman who's got a little bit more wiggle and a little bit more pass rush move to him he's now throwing off guys and you know so between jimir gibbs and and

Ben Johnson. The other person that I feel really got missed this week, if I'm the Detroit Lions, was Frank Frickin Ragnow, right? Frank was a guy that could identify. He could line you up. Like there was a couple times where you're seeing Glasgow point, hey, we're going to 55 who's out on the edge. Here comes the middle dog cross. And now there's a free runner up the middle and to sack on Jared Gough. Frank Ragnow sees those things and checks those things and gets into those things. So I think the Vikings put a little bit of a blueprint together on how to try and beat this Detroit Lions offense, can other teams mimic it?

I don't know because our personnel is so unique, but there definitely was some stuff put on tape this week that the Lions are going to have to go back to the drawing board and fix. And like I said, kudos of Brian Fulers and that crew for putting it together in a week. Going back to Van Ginkle specifically, there's one play that I really, really enjoyed watching from him because the greatest players on defense seem to be the ones

who communicate really, really well. And there's one play where Jemir Gibbs goes in motion and you know what they're trying to do. They're trying to figure out, is it man? Who's going to, who's going to cover him? Then we can figure out who's coming on the blitz. And Van Ginkle goes with it. So it looks like, oh, okay, it's going to be man coverage with Van Ginkle guarding

Jimere Gibbs. So then Gibbs comes back because he's not going to line up at wide receiver on this play. Van Ginkle turns around and communicates something to Harrison Smith, Blake Cashman, some sort of check it or whatever, and then drops in zone coverage. So instead of being man, he drops in zone. zone. And then golf is looking over there and he's like, oh, what the? Like, why is that guy there? And then there's a hesitation and I think he ends up throwing the ball away. And like those little things and we're, you know, everyone wants to talk about Turner, not getting as many snaps,

that kind of stuff. Andrew Van Ginkle is 31. Like, he's been in the league for a decade and he can do this stuff. It's complicated. It's high level when it's at its best with Brian Flores. And that right there is a, oh yeah, that's why Brian Flores wants a bunch of veterans on the field. because you can just completely change the game with that. So what from that game, though, can they carry over? Because sometimes we see the kitchen sink game. Everybody brings out the best of the best, everything that they had in there, and it's not really sustainable.

So what do you think with the defense specifically that they can sustain as they go here to face Lamar Jackson? Yeah, it's funny. I was thinking about that myself. As I'm watching them blitz and go after, all these dudes. I'm like, you don't get to do that against eight next week, right? You do that against eight and he makes one guy miss 40 yards. See ya. Right. It's a totally different game plan when you play against guys like Lamar Jackson where Van Ginkle's saying, hey, we got to get this guy off his spot.

When you're playing Lamar, you're going keep him in the pocket, right? Keep him right there and squeeze him, right? You want to squeeze the pocket against those guys. You don't want to try and, hey, inside move, take the rusher, and then you give Lamar the edge. I think that's something that it's going to be really interesting to see the game plan-wise that, hey, maybe Dallas Turner with his athleticism, we're going to blitz and we're going to come after Lamar, you spy him. I think that it's going to be a kind of a completely different game plan that you see from this Vikings defense. What I do think you'll see a lot more of continued from this last week is the run blitzes.

The run blitz is on first and second down because King Henry hasn't had the greatest year, right? He's not who he was, but he's still King Henry. And he's still big and he can still rumble if you let him get through the line of scrimmage untouched. I felt like with what they did this week, they got guys off double teams, right? When you send run blitzes and you send guys through the A gap or you're bringing guys off the edge, it requires the offensive linemen to get off those double teams quicker and get on a linebacker, which then allows the delinement to hopefully get an edge and not get

pushed as far back. So I think the run blitzes early in the downs are going to continue to be a thing that this Vikings defense does to try and stifle the run early so we can get to these exotic third down pressures and the things that we like to do from a brian floris perspective um but i think it's going to continue to be that we have to continue to play good coverage on the outside because yes we lost this game by a few but man there was some big time drops by uh jameson williams where if he catches that he might run into the end zone there was just there was some few miscues on the lion side from a set or from a receiver standpoint that had some questions we're going oh secondary that's still not great like

that's still got some issues to it and that's where i feel like lamar jackson and crew might try and exposed next week. And Theo Jackson's health is a bit up in the air here. He was placed in concussion protocol. And they played Fabian Morrow 24 snaps in this game. And he's a guy that I thought did a terrific job in this game, but not someone who you want on the field too much. So does that mean maybe Jay Ward or, you know, what's going to happen there is worth watching as well because Lamar Jackson these days can stand in there and just sling it all day if he wants to, if he has open receivers and this game definitely left you with those same concerns that you would have had in previous weeks. Now, I think Harrison Smith is clicking, which is a big deal for

them. But tackling in the secondary has been a huge issue. And if you can't tackle against the team that can get yards after catch, they can get it to their tight end, get those guys moving. Like, it could be problematic. And Jackson, if you throw them off schematically and you get a free rusher, that might turn into 50 yards for him. So, I think coverage is going to be a thing that just throughout the rest of the season, we're going to probably be walking out of games going, ah, that needed to be better. Oh, there was a big play.

You almost just might have to, unless they make a huge move in the next number of hours here after we record, very possible, you're probably going to have to accept that that is part of who they are at this point, that it's an issue that they can't really wave a magic wand and fix, and we could second guess it all day. but when we're talking about who they need to be, I think it comes down to Blake Cashman knocks a ball out, makes a play, they get five sacks,

like that front seven is going to have to cause catastrophic plays for the offense because they are going to get beat. It feels more like 2023 than it does 2024, where Byron Murphy got heard and they were playing possibly Cam Dantzler or Caleb Evans, whatever it might have been, guys who aren't starting anywhere these days, well, that's a little bit of where it feels like it stands right now.

So here's a question from our sponsors, a fan duel. The Minnesota Vikings are plus 420 to win 10 games. So not favored to win 10 games. Actually, Carolina has slightly better odds after their win. And even the Chicago Bears are plus 170 to win 10 games. Give me the path. tell me how it happens that not just you know eight not just nine how do they get to 10 wins building off of this Detroit game man you're going to make me work for my money um man I think a lot

of it is going to be so predicated off of ball control offensively because of all the issues we just arose with the secondary of Minnesota if you want to keep the offense on the field, it's going to be about time of possession. I think that's kind of an unwritten thing that not a lot of people talk about until it, like, until the Niners and the Texans game where it's like 44 minutes, what is that? Right. I don't think that's where we're going to be, but we can't flip a switch and have this offense where if JJ's having a tough day where we have a 24 minute time of possession type of football game. And we're leaving that defense out there a long time and they're getting tired or they're getting pushed on. So I think

controlling time of possession and trying to keep that as even as possible, if not on the plus side of the Vikings is going to be important if we get to 10 wins. Gernard is going to have to start having more sacks and not almost sacks. He's great. He's unbelievable. He's right there every single time. But getting some more of those guys on the ground from his perspective of just finishing the quarterback. I mean, he had Derogh dead to rights on one this week and he just kind of escaped through it. Like those type of game-changing plays from a guy like Gernard are going to. going to have to start showing up on a more week-to-week basis.

And then the last thing is just going to be controlling the turnovers. I think if we can continue to not turn the football over and take the ball away like we did this week a couple of times against Detroit, that's how you get to 10 wins is you win time of possession, you win turnover margin, and then you overcome some of your shortcomings on defense by controlling the clock on the football, on the offensive side. I'm going to get very specific here for mine. it is the opening 15 plays of every game. Yep, that's what I think it is.

And maybe someday we'll have you explain exactly how that works. We don't have time right now. But when it comes to the opening two to three drives of the game, if J.J. McCarthy can get confidence, rhythm, and most importantly, points. Yep, if you get ahead and you can run and you can blitz and you can have Javon Hargrave, who deserves all the credit in the world for a fantastic game. But it's an absolute fact that Javon Hargrave playing down 14 points trying to get in there and stuff two gaps is just not going to work.

So if they can get ahead early in games and play with the lead, and I would even maybe offer up accepting the ball first at times to just try to get ahead, even if you're up 3-0, 10 to 3, whatever it might be, that is going to be the most important of the game because I think if you're asking McCarthy to play from behind, if you're asking the defense to play from behind, that it's probably not going to work the way you wanted to. Let's do love to see it, hate to see it.

I'm going to throw it out there. Old quarterbacks, Jacoby Brissette, Joe Flacco, these ancient men standing in the pocket. Can they move? No. Is it going as fast as it used to be? No. Do the hits hurt way more than they did when you were 20? Yes.

but they know where to throw the football and how to throw the football. And it's beautiful to watch. Congratulations to Jacoby Brissette on a win against the Cowboys. And Joe Flacco, the 2025 Bengals, I'm writing them down as one of my favorite teams of all time. This is so much fun. It's absolutely ludicrous. And here's what I would love all these quarterback gurus and trainers to study a little bit is sometimes it ain't that complicated. And offensive coordinators and everybody at the high school to the college,

or whatever. Joe Flacko's just like football, chase, bang. Football, Higgins, bang. Like, it doesn't have to be 16 reads, 14 motions. You don't have to learn how to disconnect the top and the bottom of your body so you snap it like Mahomes. It's like sometimes you just need to stand in there and throw a dart and move that offense. Beautiful. Love to see it. Yeah, I mean, that Chicago Bears Cincinnati Bengals game was the most clown show last two minutes. I've ever seen and I was here for I was glued I couldn't I couldn't look away right it was like oh when's the next train wreck and then it happened you're like could there be one more oh yes sure enough there could be one more like okay finally they figured it out oh they didn't want to tackle coastal

love land okay that's how this game ends it was just perfect my my love to see it is the buffalo bills figuring their life out against the Kansas city chiefs against 18 that we said on this show I said on my old line committee like the chiefs are back right the juggernauts are back that's the best version we've seen of the chiefs like this is it and then for the bills no one gave him a shot everyone said this defense is too depleted Josh Allen doesn't have a number one receiver the chiefs are still the chiefs that was a very dominant performance by the buffalo bills in my opinion against with some depletion the crappy thing is they always kind of do this in the regular season and then it doesn't really matter in January but we are living in a world in which the

chiefs may miss the playoffs and i'm not saying that they will but it's not because of the chiefs but it's because the other teams in the a fc have just found ways to continue to go out and be better and win and now it looks like jacksonville this trade for jacobby mire's so they're trying to make a push but yeah i mean i love that the bills there because the bills oddly enough are fighting for a wild card spot and i'll just do another one my quick love to see it too what the new england patriots are able to do what drake may is doing what mike brayble is doing and how that team has completely flipped on its head in a calendar year has been really fun to see.

And Miami, Buffalo, New York hate to see it. Hate to see it. Look, I know that everyone wants the worst for the Packers, but you don't want Tucker Kraft to get an ACL injury to get there. Terrible jaded Daniels with the injury. I mean, these are enormous, enormous, like shifting injuries for the league. And for the Vikings, they're going to be on the positive side of that because they play these teams.

but I don't think that anybody wanted to do it that way. And what happened with Jane Daniels, I mean, it's just like, I think, you know, you could see how bad Dan Quinn felt about it. He's going to have, I'm sure, for the next, I don't know how long, the play call, everything in his head of what happened there. And that was, that was just awful to see those two injuries to two of the best and most exciting players in the NFL. Yeah, I mean, Tucker Kraft was starting to emerge as a top five tight end.

this league. And I mean, what's funny is he wasn't even the guy they drafted to be the guy. They wanted Luke Musgrave, right? They're like, Lewis Musgrave is the guy. And then Tucker Kraft just came in from South Dakota State and absolutely took the league by storm and it continued to do a great thing there. My other hate to see it is the New York Giants with Jackson Dart having no help, right? I think he's actually, I didn't give him enough credit. I did not think Dart was going to be this type of player. I did not think he had this armed talent that he has with these touch passes but drop touchdowns to slayton cam scadaboo being out no malik neighbors like kind of offensive lines shuffling around he's got a rookie right tackle but there's just

so much going on there where you can almost see the like man there's so much going on here that's positive but they just can't break through this curse or this hump or whatever it is which is probably going to end up getting dable fired unfortunately i don't want him to but like they're kind of have to start all over next year and it's it's one of those things we're just you don't want that for that rookie quarterback that's being positive and your court's going to get fired because there's the other way around right rookie quarterback's a disaster fire the coach it's kind of the opposite rookie quarterback's looking good and promising and then we're going to still have to start all over with the next year I don't love that and that's where I would

suggest to the giants look this was going to be a rebuilding year for you whether you liked it or not and you shouldn't have put an ultimatum on this year to be competitive I would prefer a B minus coach, which I think is probably Brian Dable, like some good, some bad. And consistency to a change to go from B minus to B plus at best. But the warning I'll always give about, oh, hey, fire this coach, hire a new coach, fire the new coach, is that there were 10 guys who were hired in 2022, along with Kevin O'Connell. I believe seven of them are fired and two of them are on the hot seat.

It's not always a guarantee that you just hire the next guy. and then all of a sudden he's got all the answers. And then you're asking Jackson Dart to basically be a rookie again because he has to learn an entire new offense. I think it would be better to just ride it out and play as hard as you can. As long as he doesn't go completely crazy. We have seen that at times. So when guys go completely nuts, yeah, maybe you have to make that change.

The last one for me would be your Nebraska corn huskers. I do feel bad. I just wanted to say I'm sorry that that's tough, tough game, tough break. And as much as I've made fun of Halloween costume, Mahomes, I don't want the, I don't want the bads for him. He's a fun player. He's good. He's talented. Just, you know, maybe change your number or something next time. Yeah, it's one of those things that I get to go do some Husker podcast later day where it's like, remember everyone wants the backup quarterback so he actually has to play? Like, dude, I'm telling you, like when he went in the stadium was like,

oh, yeah, baby, here we go. And I'm sure they're going, boys, it's not going to happen. And then he drop snaps and you're like there's a reason he's a freshman right so yeah super bummer for the huskers um skies falling here in lincoln so we we got to get some damage control on that but college football is still so much fun right now indiana looks like they could be the team like i i don't think that it's out of the realm of possibility to say indiana indiana could be the national champion yeah i wouldn't be surprised yeah i would not be shocked if the hoosers are raising the dr pepper trophy at the end of the year, which is bananas, but I love it. I'm here for it. And all these coaches keep getting fired. And it's just going to be an

interesting thing in college football over the next two or three months. And I can't. I just, I'm obsessed with it. I can't get it. Now, now also everyone's decided Arch Manning's good. So, hey, look at that. Oh, wow. He's the same as JJ. Crown kill. Crown kill. Right. It's just, it's just you can't be, you can't help it when it's something like that. Oh, and just for you. And then this is the last thing I'll say. 68 yard field goal. Get out of here. Get out of here.

Stop it. These kickers get a normal football and can't even make it from 55. Whose idea was the K ball? It's ludicrous. It's made football silly. It's become one of my favorite things to text you in a long field. The worst happens. I hate it.

I'm watching Red Zone and I'm like, oh, 61-yard or caller, bang, through the roof. Like, but it is interesting to hear like the. McPherson and even with the World Records like all of a sudden they get so used to kicking these soccer balls and then they're like oh I have to kick a real ball and it's like ah short 53 yards you came up a little short so I don't know who asked for this I don't think it is but I hope the NFL just gets away from it I was hoping brandon Aubrey was going to make that 68 ardor last night so cam little could be like gosh damn it can I have something good for like four hours I did see that he got tested after the game for steroid usage test your footballs man

It's the football. Anyway, all right. Great stuff as always. Vikings Ravens will be back Tuesday morning left guard next week. Thank you very much, Jeremiah. Absolutely. Football.