Purple Insider - a Minnesota Vikings and NFL podcast - Jeremiah Sirles compares the current Vikings to the 2017 version

Episode Date: November 27, 2024

Matthew Coller and Jeremiah Sirles talk about a bunch of interesting stats and then Jeremiah compares the 9-2 Vikings to the 2017 team when they were 9-2. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Hey everybody, welcome to another episode of Purple Insider. Matthew Collar here, along with former Minnesota Viking Jeremiah Searles, whose university is headed to a bowl game. The Nebraska Huskers with a win. Congratulations, Jeremiah. Your squad is headed for greatness during bowl season. I can't wait. The Idaho Potato Bowl is waiting for us, man.

It's going to happen. But no, that was fun. I mean, the stadium needed it. I can't believe we rushed the field after beating a terrible Wisconsin team, but it is what it is. But no, super excited. I mean, Gopher Land almost pulled one out. A fake punt with Penn State just did them in.

But man, they took Penn State right to the brink too. Well, they also threw a pass to the left tackle. And as a former person who's played tackle in the NFL, would you endorse that type of play? Because I found it to be a highly questionable decision, which P.J. Fleck said, no, it's a good play. It's a good play. They were like 10 yards away from the end zone.

You would only do that if you were completely faking everyone out and the fat guy could just sneak sneak sneak over to the end zone you don't do it when he's got to make a play no now now when you're asking him to to make a move in the open field that's that it's one of those you catch you turn around you fall down and you score you don't have to go anywhere you just focus on making the catch you ask us to do too much outside of our, Hey, catch secure, right? Hey, five points of contact, make sure we're holding the ball the proper way. And then don't let anyone tackle you. That's when things can really start to go awry. So I imagine that in your lifetime playing football, you never caught a pass in a game, right? Were you always alignment or did you ever have your skill moment?

No, I never caught one in a game. Um, but I did do a couple in practice, right? So I had some, when I was in like, I'd be the heavy, the report tight end, right? You see the guys come 13 muscle and I'm Buffalo. Josh would always throw it to me on Fridays and I hated it. Right. Like, cause he'd always throw it super hard. And I'd be like, Josh, damn it. I used to go get receiver gloves just for Friday so I didn't drop it and look like an asshole. Because he'd be the one where you'd have to go and you'd turn and you'd go and then

you'd see he'd be looking over and then he'd just turn and I'd be like, gosh dang it. Ow, it freaking hurts. But I prayed he never threw it to me in a game because I was like, I don't have any desire to catch a football. I caught a football one time. It was in 2017 in the preseason.

Case Keenum had a ball batted up when we were running like an RPO, and it just fell in my hands. I remember as I was like, oh, I caught it. And then like, you just get to, I was like, this is stupid. Why does anyone want to touch this thing? Well, there are several instances recently of offensive linemen getting their big chance and deciding that it was a good idea to try to run with it and make a play. And I understand why that is.

It's your one shot, and this was in the Texans and Cowboys game. Whee! I've got the football. I'm going to go make a play. And so often, the linemen will attempt some form of juke. They will shimmy the shoulders or something. And they're just not even moving. Like, in their brain, they think, I'm juking them out. And we're all watching and going, your body's not doing anything. And then they just get crushed and usually fumble.

I mean, I get it. I get it. But is that not something you ever talk about? If you ever get the ball, just go down. Oh, 100%. It's a put the ball, just get on the ground. We've got tape. Like most guys' hands are just clubs, right?

We don't, we're not used to carrying things. We're not used to fall. When we fall, we're used to putting two hands down, all this stuff mean every coach i've ever had was like listen you ain't going anywhere with football just fall down right like you've got double knee braces on those dudes run four fours like no just go down it's hard enough for nfl running backs to run away from people, much less people of, uh, of girth. So anyway, why don't we, why don't we talk about the girth, uh, the offensive line. If Cam Robinson is out for any significant amount of time, which Kevin O'Connell did not give any definitive update on Monday, that's probably because the players had the day off for a victory Monday.

So they'll have to come in. They'll get their treatment. We'll see on Wednesday about Cam Robinson. If he has to miss time, David Questenberry is a pro who's able to step in, hold on for dear life for a game or two, but not somebody you want playing any significant amount of time. What do they do to make up for Cam Robinson if he does end up missing multiple weeks yeah first of all be really upsetting i mean from uh from a standpoint of you gave up draft capital to bring this guy in in the whole bit and to see him get banged up and maybe have to miss multiple weeks would be really upsetting but i thought that i thought that quentin presley thought that dq okay you want let's work through it i'm just just going to call him DQ.

Sorry, Quessonberry. Quessonberry. I won't say Cleasonberry. I don't know why. Because that was a relief pitcher for the Royals and the Cardinals and the Angels. Oh, that must have been it. This is Quessonberry, not Dan Cleasonberry. Yeah, I got Quessonberry.

I like Quessonberry. He came in and actually played very well. The two games he's had to come in, he's done a nice job in emergency support time time I'd like to see okay if he has to be the guy what's it look like when he's got the full week to prep as a starter what's it look like when the defensive line have a full week to prep against him as a starter and go from there and he's probably earned that right to at least get that shot but I agree with you and he's not the long-term solution there especially as you start hey we're getting the

playoffs and we're playing teams like Green Bay and we're playing teams like detroit and teams that have really good edge rushers we're gonna want a more trusted guy there because sam still really loves to hold the football he really likes to hold it and koc really likes those long deep developing downfield shots you're to either have to do a couple things. One, put a tight end over there, Josh Oliver, Johnny Munt, have them stick in there a little bit, chip their way out, and let them be the security blanket. Or, you know, it's going to have to be more of the quick screen,

get the ball out of your hands, because he's not a guy you want to hold for three, three and a half seconds. He's not just built for that. And there's not many tackles in the league besides Christian Derrissaw Trent Williams Penny Sewell that are built for plays like that yeah the problem is you can't really redo it all offensively this is the offense they're going to run people downfield and it resulted because Questerberry played well it resulted in some huge explosive plays that were slow developing. I mean, Sam Darnold it's, he does hold on to the ball a long time.

Also the play requires that their play actions, he's looking down the field and I don't know how many tight ends are 30 yards down the field, but TJ Hawkinson is, why do we even call him a tight end at this point? I mean, he is a really excellent wide receiver when you're running that far down the field, the Addison play though, Jefferson, Addison, and TJ Hawkinson are all 30 yards down the field by the time he releases that football. And it's really good the way that they set up the route combination to confuse the secondary, the bears to get Addison open, but you need that time to throw. And I can understand also from O'Connell's perspective, you have these tackles. Okay. Let's build a system that takes advantage of having Brian O'Neill and

Christian Derrissaw. But when you go a level down, that's where it gets a little bit trickier. He is a veteran player, Questerberry he's played in the league, but I don't know how many adjustments you can really make. You might just have to say, we're going to hold on for dear life. We're going to have CJ Ham chip. We're going to have Josh Oliver come back and line up on that side. And we're going to run everything out of there. Yeah. And you say, Hey, Dalton Reisner, Brian O'Neill, you ain't getting the slide.

Sorry. We're sliding left. We're going to have Brandle be able to get out and Bradbury be able to get out and help him. So he knows he can set to the outside. And if this guy was to come inside, then Brandle's going to be right there. There's a lot of ways that you can try and give help, but it's almost a helpless position at times. They're going to send blitzes.

There's going to be reasons where you return away or everyone's going to be locked up in a one-on-one, and you're going to have to hold up. If you're not a top third guy in the NFL in that position, it's hard to have the offense that is built, especially, like you said, you can't rebuild it. KOC's built this offense with, well, I had 70. I had Darren Saw over there. I never even thought about that position. That was just a, he's fine this offense with well i had 79 i had darren saw over there right i never even thought about that position that was just uh he's fine he'll get the guy blocked i don't care it doesn't matter if it's swat it doesn't matter if it's sidarius smith it doesn't matter if it's aaron donald it doesn't matter he'll take care of it and now it's something he's going to actually as

he's putting route concepts these things in okay how many of these can i call in a game or do i really have to pick my time and choose of, Hey, when I want to take these deep shots and when I want to do it and how do I want to change up a little bit of the stuff in the middle here, just to give the protection that's going to be needed. And it does help when you're taking your shots off play action. It at least makes the defensive line. Think about it a little bit and consider that you might be running the football. Sometimes if you're running those zone ones, you can zone away from where that guy is and just make sure he doesn't track down

the quarterback from behind or make sure on the other side, they're not sending people upfield. That happened to Kirk a bunch of times, but you can do little things around it. Over a couple of games, I think it's survivable and it was survivable in Chicago over six games, over playoff games. So and it was survivable in Chicago over six games over

playoff games. So they may have to try to make sure that Cam Robinson is at a hundred percent by the time he comes back. Cause if you keep forcing him out there, if he's dealing with the foot injury, he's not going to be the best version of himself, which I think Christian Darisaw playing through an injury is still way above average. I'm not sure that that's really true for someone like Cam Robinson. So this is all a factor. Uh, I got a little, what does that stat mean for you though, regarding the office line? What does that stat mean? Uh, Garrett Bradbury this year by our friends at pro football focus is the ninth highest graded overall center in the league. Now he's not quite that high in terms of pass protection,

but he's more of league average in pass protection and above average in the run game. Has your observation about Mr. Bradbury matched up with what PFF says this year that he is having an above average season and the best season so far of his career yeah it has and the main reason is because we haven't talked about him right we really haven't had a reason to pull up and be like man what's happening at the center position right why is he getting pushed why is this guy in Kirk's face like those are the conversations that we've had on this show

multiple times over the course of the last couple years he's kind of been a mute point and when you're an offensive lineman and your name's not being brought up you're probably having a career year probably having one of the best years of your life because no one's bothering you you don't got people hate tweeting you like all the crazy things and when you turn on the film he's very much in command of this offense which is allowing him to see a lot of things right he is in full this is now multiple years in this offense multiple years of understanding the checks and what we want to do and how we want to get to things and you can just see that the game has really slowed down for him from a mental standpoint that's allowed him to focus a lot on the physical standpoint right being

able to make sure his hat placement and his footwork and all the things are in the right place. And he has just been eliminating the really bad plays, right? He still has some bad plays. Everyone does in the NFL. That's why those guys get paid a lot of money too on the other side. But he's eliminated the kind of disastrous plays of getting put on your back or going the wrong way or getting creased and getting blown up.

Those are the plays that have been very much on the downside this year for Garrett Bradbury you're right the we talk about it with the reason they made a change at right guard it's not that Reisner has been even above average these last two weeks it's that he hasn't got destroyed yeah he's not moving bodies but he's also not on letting his guy just fly through I don't remember any times where he's just been instantly beat and Sam Darnold is hit. And that's where you're at least giving quarterbacks a chance. And with Bradbury, it's the same deal where if you could just anchor in and hang on, even if you're getting pushed back, even if PFF isn't giving you a plus, cause you didn't

pancake the guy, you are doing enough of your job to survive. And I don't think it can be overstated how important he's been to Sam Darnold from day one, because these things get built in may, they get built in August and to have Sam Darnold come into a new system that asks a lot of the quarterback and have a center that knows the offense inside and out. And Bradbury told us,

I think in Cleveland during the joint practices, he told us that he's a lot more in command than he was with Kirk. He said that Kirk was the veteran quarterback. He was going to call the protections. He was going to do everything out there. And that's how it was. But with someone like Darnold learning now it's he's making suggestions. He's communicating with him. And I mean, when you look back, when they re-signed Bradbury, I think all of us went like, okay, I guess, but that was maybe a good example of not trying to chase perfect and accepting good. And we've also, I think, seen him develop enough to where our first impression was so poor early on of him getting bowled over by Akeem Hicks time and time again that we kind of haven't checked back on that

and I finally went, you know what, I haven't noticed him a lot this year. Let me check back on that. I think that both short and long term, his value is now immense to the Minnesota Vikings offense. Absolutely, because you talk about what he's been able to do with Sam Darnold this year. his value is now immense to the Minnesota Vikings offense. Absolutely. Because you talk about what he's been able to do with Sam Darnold this year. It's been great experience for him of having essentially a rookie quarterback again next year in JJ McCarthy, right? Guy didn't play at all this year. He's going to come in and yes, he'll have one year in the league, but he's still going

to be playing like a rookie because it's his first year starting. If you can rely on, hey, you let Bradbury handle the protections. You let him handle the mic points. Like if you see something, sure, suggest it to him. But you don't tell him anything. Right? You listen to him. If he points over there, we're going over there in the protection.

You worry about everything else. It'll take a lot off of JJ's plate going into next year of, hey, we have our guy in the middle let's leave him there let him do his thing and then you do your thing so i agree with you the long-term effect of having garrett bradbury there is going to pay a lot of dividends off for this vikings offensive line okay so that's an interesting transition that you mentioned jj mccarthy because i'm going to throw another stat at you. What does this stat mean? Sam Darnold, over his last 18 starts and a handful of other appearances since 2022.

I'm going to read off his stats to you. 18 starts, 4,157 yards, 8.1 yards per pass attempt, 30 touchdowns, 14 picks, 97.7 quarterback rating, and 286 yards rushing over about a full season's worth of play since 2022. What does that stat mean? That stat means that someone's going to pay him $40 million a year next year. That's exactly what that stat means that someone's going to pay him 40 million a year next year like that's exactly what that stat means i've you look around the nfl and you look at what the niners rolled out there on sunday and alan gross you look at you know what's going on in oakland right now gardner minshu snaps his snaps his collarbone and now you're going oh Aiden O'Connell gross right and you just continue to look around the league and go there's just bad quarterback play around the league so if

you're looking at a guy like Sam Darnold and I'm Sam Darnold's agent every single week the price is going up like the price is going up and every single win that he gets and every single game he continues to improve, the price is going up to where he's going to be able to command $40 million to $50 million a year going into next year because it's going to look like that in his range of quarterbacks that are playing as well or better or worse than he is. He's going to be in that range of $40 million to $50 million a year, just like I think Brock Purdy is going to be in the range of $50 million after what he saw, what that team could do without him last week, right? It's a scarce

market for good quarterbacks. And with Sam doing what he's doing, someone's going to pay him. Okay. What does he have to do over the last six? Because now we're talking about a bigger sample than just this year, bigger than just pop-up, but even going back to the end of his last time when he was starting with Carolina. What does he have to do for you to get in the conversation to still be this team's quarterback next year in the final six games? NFC Championship. NFC Championship.

Because that is, for me, that is the only thing that would, if I'm Kweisi, that's the only thing that derails me from my plan. I have a plan, and it all got put in motion the second J.J. McCarthy got drafted. Here's my plan, my vision of building this team around a rookie-scale quarterback. Here's where we're going to put the pieces in play, and everything's going to be there,

and we're going to create our Super Bowl window in year two or three of his rookie contract. That's the plan, and that's what I sold ownership on. That's what KOC and I came up with in the offseason, the whole bit. The only thing that I'm going to let myself get derailed from that plan on so I don't get Daniel Jonesed is if they take me to the NFC Championship or the Super Bowl. Right? Because at that point, I may lose the locker room if I let a guy like that walk out.

That then becomes part of the question. What are the guys in the locker room saying? Hey, man, we just had this guy take us all the way to the NFC Championship game and we just kind of let him walk. Right? Because it's different than Case Keenum. Case Keenum didn't have anywhere near the numbers that sam darnold has right now right everyone kind of knew case was playing above who he was the question is is this sam darnold really is he really this way because it's in there you see it right you never saw this potential with a guy like case keenum in 2017 right i love case but the potential the talent, the overall quarterback play wasn't the same. So the question then becomes with Sam

Darnold, if I'm Justin Jefferson, Jordan Addison, TJ Hawkinson, and this dude's wheeling and dealing and throwing it to me and doing the thing, how do I feel about if he leaves us a deep in the playoffs, letting him walk out the building? It's a weird weird it's a weird conversation to have knowing you have jj sitting in the wing but that for me is the only thing that can derail you from the superbowl winning plan that you laid and put forth going into this year's draft what i am so uncomfortable with is trying to make decisions based on what happens in one playoff game. And this happened in 2019 to the Vikings where we were flying down to New Orleans and I had the best meal of my entire life before the game. Oh my,

no wonder they usually have good offensive line. Oh yeah. It is insane. You can eat down there. Insane. How good that food is. And I'm having a conversation with somebody before the game, and they're telling me, prepare yourself that Mike Zimmer might be out if we lose this game.

It's probably over. I'm like, man, what? If you lose a playoff game, it's over. If you win it, he gets an extension based on one game, and New Orleans kicker misses a kick before halftime game goes to overtime. You win a coin flip feeling makes an insane catch. Rudy pushes off and all of a sudden someone's stealing his gloves and you got an extension for Mike Zimmer. What the frick? Like this, what you would just want to fire him. And, uh, that doesn't seem like a great way to

plan things. So with Sam Darnold, are we going to a divisional game in Detroit saying if he beats Detroit, he stays, if he loses Detroit, he goes, I mean, I, that doesn't seem like a really good way to do this.

But I think that this final six games has to make a difference. The bigger sample that they're going to have here, because it's a lot of good teams. It's a lot of big situations. He's going to put in teams are going to score points on you. You're going to have to really lead the whole thing, but these last couple of weeks bouncing back from that Jacksonville game, the way that he's played top 10 quarterback play, he has made it much more difficult on the Vikings than we ever thought that they would be at this point. Let me throw out one more.

What does this stat mean? Sam Darnold, when KOC draws up a play action pass, my favorite thing in the sport is going to hand it. I know he doesn't. Gary Kubiak, Mike Shanahan. They just made a whole career about being like and handoff. No, it's a pass and then the defense what do we do linebackers panic panic drop panic drop what's they have some word for it it's like

the robot they robot stick the foot in the ground it's crazy how silly that faking a handoff throws everything into disarray. Anyway, 74% completion, 12 touchdowns, three picks, 11.3 yards per attempt, and a 137 quarterback rating with play action. I think Kevin O'Connell can call plays. I think I finally decided after the guys won 26 out of 36 games with a starting quarterback playing and has gotten this good a quarterback play. You know, I think I finally figured it out. He's pretty good at calling plays.

But what does that stat mean that Sam Darnold has a 137 quarterback rating and 91 PFF grade when running play action? It means there's a lot of healthy respect for our guy aaron jones in the backfield right that's where it all starts it all starts with your ability to run the football right play actions mean nothing if you can't run the football because like we talked about the linebackers don't bite because they're like i'm not no i don't i don't feel like i have to beat this old lineman to the spot we've been shoving it up their ass all day in the run game right It doesn't matter.

But you start gashing and you start leaning on them. You start leaning on them in four and six and eight. Now those linebackers are getting sucked up. Now you have those high percentage completion throws of, hey, the tight end sneaks out and he's behind the linebackers now and the safeties have got their backs turned with the deep over with Jefferson over there. High completion high completion wide open pitch and catch bang right it's it's as much about the play calling as much as about the opportunity to call the play

in the game when am I calling it right am I calling it at the right time if I call if I call four play actions in a row they're not going to be successful. You have to pick and choose, Hey, when do I feel like I had the defense on their heels? When, when as a play caller, do I really feel like this defensive coordinator is panicking of, man, they're running the football on me. This is a tendency of they're going to call blitz on this play to stop the run. It's a great moment for a play action, right? There's definitely good coaches and good play callers that just have that knack of knowing when to call those plays. And then it's up to, obviously, Sam Darnold to execute it. But I think he is very comfortable on the move.

He's very comfortable as things are moving around in front of him. But it's really just because guys have been wide open. They have been. The guys have been wide open. And then when they haven't, he's been able to make a couple really tight throws on the sideline and on the window i mean that i'm pretty sure there's a play action to addison that crazy one he had against the colts right a tight window throw but he's just got a lot of confidence in moving and being able to run and do things with his arm but i just think kevin o'connell does a great job picking and choosing when to call those play actions the touchdown addison darnold was

running backward and still put enough velocity on the football, which speaks to your point about the raw talent of this quarterback. But you know, I think that these play action plays often do. I think they really simplify things for the quarterback. Yeah, it messes with the linebackers. Um, but after everyone was running those wide zones a couple of years ago, they started to kind of be a little more hesitant about just jumping up into the play. And even then it's usually the, uh, like a levels type of thing. Okay. Well, if this is there, I'm going underneath. And if this is there, I'm going to the next level. And I always wonder about maybe, can you simplify it without the play action? And maybe the linebackers can get depth and it makes that harder. But I also feel like it's like,

this doesn't have to be exclusive to that, that you can use this kind of idea. But I think that the bigger thing with this stat is that he has the fifth highest percentage of play action run that Kevin O'Connell and he's got CJ ham out there this week. He is really dipped into his Stefanski bag and his Kubiak bag and gone back to some things that are more based to where McVay came from and where Shanahan came from.

It has really told me that he is able to adjust to his quarterback because this is not what he was doing with Kirk. With Kirk, we were going like, why is the play action down so much? It's Kirk. Why is every play kind of under center and throwing all over the place and shorter passes and stuff like that. And with this, he has, we're going to run more and we're going to run these play actions more off of it. That's a different philosophy. And especially the last three weeks, CJ Ham's out there for 20 plays a game, which he had not been doing under Kevin O'Connell at any point. There has been adjustments that we can see on paper that he's making for Sam

Darnold. Yeah. And that just goes to why he should be in candidate for coach of the year, his ability to coach the players and not the scheme. So many coaches come in and, Hey, it's my scheme and I know it works and I know it, I can call it. Well, you can have the greatest scheme in the world, but if you're playing chess with checkers pieces, who cares? It doesn't matter. It can look great and flashy, but if it goes out there and the guy can't do it, what's the point? And he's done a great job of, hey, okay, this is my players. This is what my playmakers can do. This is how I want to set my playmakers up. Okay, they're taking that playmaker away. All right, let's just switch things up.

And the more he continues to change personnels, the more he continues to change schemes, it really makes the defense have to pick what they're going to prep for during the week. Like what do we put a point of emphasis on? And it doesn't get talked about enough, but as you start heading into the month of December, the practices get cut way

down, right? They're shorter guys are dinged up less periods per practice, less plays per a period, more walkthrough, less individual, all that stuff comes in. And so if you're an offensive coach and you're going, okay, I've got everything imaginable here in my toolbox and my candy drawer, I can pick and choose. And the defense is on the other side going we just have to kind of choose what we want to pick here to prep for during the week and then adjust in real time on the game it puts a ton of pressure on a defense to walk into a game not entirely sure what you're going to get out of a koc offense i also want to say cj ham was great in this game he was great you know he was he was, he was, you saw it.

I saw the hammer time, dude. I love it. He was there. CJ came in my like second to last there here. Like it was unbelievable. He was a running back at first for his first season and then transitioned over to fullback. And he under KOC has found a different role as more of a pass protector, but they've started putting him on the field more and he was clearing bodies at Chicago. Just didn't really know what to do

with them. It seemed like Chicago was like, wait a minute. What's this dude? Like linebackers just don't get hit by a fullback anymore. They don't get punched in the face the way that they used to. And it was a nice mix up for them. And something that I think is clever for Kevin O'Connell. I would love to hear you talk a little more as we approach this about being on a team with real expectations. That is nine and two. I don't remember. Was it nine and two would have been probably nine and two. I think you guys were in 2017. Yeah. Cause we rattled off. Cause we went, we lost to Pittsburgh. Yep. And that was the last loss until Carolina Carolina.

Yeah. Right. And what does that, what does that feel like? Especially in the similarity too, is that no one expected you to be there after Sam, Sam Bradford got hurt. It's a little different because it's less of a miracle as it was with Keenum that whole season. But still, you get to December, you're nine and two. What is that like?

Yeah. So the first thing is, it's incredible to me how every year through the month of October and early November, we sit here and make our assumptions like, oh, this team's struggling. Or that team, oh, look, they're kind of making a push here. Look at the Colts, right? And then we get to December, and it's the familiar faces always. It's there's the Bills, there's the Chiefs, oh, the Ravens just went out and dismantled the Chargers. But the question mark out of all the groups this year is the Minnesota Vikings, right? They're the one question mark. And what I

can tell you from being on a team is that every week it gets more and more stressful, not from a like, oh my gosh, we have to win of just, it matters more, right? Cause it goes from having different goals of, Hey, we want to win each. It used to be with 16 games. Hey, every quarter of the season, you want to go three in one, right's kind of the, hey, that's the goal. And as you get past that goal, it's like, hey, now we want to make sure we get into a playoff spot. Okay, hey, now we want to make sure we win the division. Hey, now let's see if we can clinch a first-round bye.

Hey, now let's make sure that the road to the Super Bowl goes to Minnesota. And all those goals just add a little bit more of, man, every week matters. Every week you're playing for so much more than what it was even just two, three weeks ago. And that makes it more preparation and buy-in, but it's also way more freaking fun. Right? I mean, you take that advice for like 2016 where we're just every week we're getting beat again. And now it's not, okay, hey we can we get to 500 on the year right like the goals change like and the the goals have different ways of motivating as a team motivating individuals like that whole piece but when you're just coming into work every day going

man winning is so much fun like we're having a good time and now we're putting ourselves in position to go win the whole damn thing it's so much more fun but it does you do feel the weight of hey things matter a lot more than they did even just a week ago what i have found when the team is really competitive and this even goes for 2022 though on the outside we're saying uh i don't know guys you should probably have a positive point differential which by the way the vikings are fourth in the league at point differential, which by the way, the Vikings are fourth in the league at point differential. That's good. Uh, very good actually. So, but you know, when they had a negative point differential and they're surviving on Mike white, throwing an interception at the end, you're just not as inspired. But even then there is something that happens to the veteran players when they get to a December and it's real, not only do like amping up their game, but also there's a recognition of how few chances you get at this. Right. And it with Patrick

Peterson, the tone kind of changed with Patrick Peterson. We got to December. It's like, this might be the last chance I ever get to compete for a Superbowl. He knew that with his age and even guys who have been around and have kind of been through it, like Andrew Van Ginkle or Blake Cashman or Jonathan Grenard, they start to kind of have it settle in that like, this is, this is a real shot for me and for us. And it's hard to get these shots and you never know what's going to happen next year or whatever. And everyone who's been around the league, they know enough to say say i don't know what's going to happen next year because the younger players like oh he just went all the time and that that dynamic is is something special to watch kind of hit everybody and have that sink in and then every game okay

it's arizona well what would arizona mean if this team was six and five or five and six or whatever we'd be like i don't know i guess I'll get to see Marvin Harrison. But now it's like, dude, it's Arizona. This team can play. Let's see what happens. And they're going to fill that stadium. The energy, the buzz, all the things that happen to the team, to the community, now is when it happens.

Not usually beginning, middle of November. It's now. Yeah, and you want to be playing your best football in the months of December you know the ramp up is real for an NFL season you think there's teams that come out of the gate super hot and you're like wow big shiny those are really fun a la the New Orleans Saints and then they just and they just fall off the cliff and then there's teams that even plateau as they hit into December. They're like, eh, they're kind of just staying the same.

They're not really getting better. And then there's teams that are just skyrocketing as they go into December, knowing the same thing you just said. Hey, it's playoff push time. In one month, we're playing for we either win or we're in Cancun. It's coming to that moment. And I can think about a guy like Joe Berger, right, played 13 years in the NFL.

When we went to the playoffs in 2015, it was his first time ever going to the playoffs in 11 years. 11 years, right? And it does matter so much more to those guys. And as a young player, you kind of just fall into this like, well, let's go to the playoffs every year. It's just kind of what we do, right? It is freaking hard to get in the playoffs, to get a seat in the dance. And so the veterans really have to make the young guys understand,

especially guys that come from Alabama and Georgia and Oregon and Ohio State, that are just used to winning all the time. When you get a chance to get a seat at the dance, you've got to make the most of it, because you never know if you're going to be back. 30% roster turnover every single year. New coaches go and the guy that you think, man, we love Brian Flores flores well he's the head coach of the new york giants next year sorry about it right things just change and it's they never the only change the only constant the nfl has changed so when you have that moment and you

have all the chips there in front of you you've got to run with it so what do the minnesota vikings have to do in december slash i'm sure one of these games is in january uh the final six weeks of the season to convince you that going into the playoffs they have a mildly good chance to reach the super bowl what could they do from here on out they got to beat the lions you know What if the game doesn't matter, though? It's hard for me to think it won't matter with how well Philly's playing, with how well Detroit's playing. There's enough teams right up there that that game, I think, is going to matter, and it's going to feel like a playoff atmosphere type of game.

We know that we probably can't win the division. Maybe we to matter and it's going to feel like a playoff atmosphere type of game i mean even for i mean we know that we probably can't win the division maybe we are only one game behind detroit but like that's going to be a type of so i want to say and i might not be fair beat detroit but the other piece of it is continue to get fix our flaws right there's still a few flaws in this minnesota vikings team that you look at and go, I think Detroit could probably pick that apart. Or I think Jordan Love might be able to pick that. Or the Eagles, right? You start looking at and comparing the Minnesota Vikings to,

oh, yeah, the Bears picked it apart. Yeah, they're the Bears. But what if that's Saquon Barkley and Jalen Hurts in the playoffs? Those are the type of things that you want to look at and go, okay, what in the next six weeks can we clean up our flaws and become a more polished product of who we are? Because we know we're a damn good football team. But how do we continue to polish ourselves?

More takeaways, continue to take care of the football. And I know, KFC, you don't want to hear this. Run the freaking football at the end of the game, right? Know how to put a team away. That's been kind of an Achilles heel a little bit this year. If we're not blowing a team out and it's kind of that 10 to 14 point lead, we haven't been able to just, you know, boot, neck, game over.

We kind of let them hang around there at the end of the game. When you're playing against playoff teams with guys with unreal talent, that can really come back to bite you so i'd love to see us learn how to close out games a little bit better coming down the stretch too so funny i was writing that i was writing like hey they just closed the team out like they made that fourth down stop and right that's exactly like I'm like. Copy. Backspace. I truly thought that they had done it when they got up by 11.

And the Vikings finally closed out a bad team in Chicago. No less. Nothing happened in Soldier Field. And there's no more curse. And then what? So it turns out Matt Daniels explained what a watermelon kick is. And how, why, and everything that happened there. The long story short is that it's supposed to spin slow on the ground and move around

and be harder. It doesn't matter, but it hit Johnny Mott and he should have just grabbed it. So that was the bottom line. But anyway, I thought, I thought the offense and defense had done that. And then, you know there was the extra chances there but uh i look at green bay is the game for me i look at green bay because i don't know what it's going to mean in detroit and if you're the vikings and your playoff position is set then start mcmullins and just don't show detroit anything because you might

have to face them again in a couple weeks but that Green Bay game will very likely mean something it's at home it's going to have so much hype and it might I don't know if they're going to flex or what the situation is at that point but it could be good that could very well could be all that's going to be a big one that that my suggestion by the way was that they bring back every quarterback for the vikings that's had a random year to inspire darnell like here's jeff george here's case keenum here's like to blow the gal horn like here's joe capp's family like you know just it's like it's like it's like those commercials that are the back of quarterback commercials now as a progressive those are incredible those are phenomenal and here's randall cunningham like get the pastor not in there

yeah right he's not busy this is a maybe koc coaching point about him being good at it is josh dobbs plays for the 49ers and got beat out by Brandon Allen. And he was starting with no experience whatsoever. And we're going, KOC should have adjusted the offense. I don't know, man. I'm not sure there's a lot you can do there. I don't think so. I think he is what he is.

But we enjoyed the heck out of that two weeks. I called an uh aerospace engineer had him break it down how hard it is to play football yeah content yep chip scoggins of the strip called nasa imagine they're at nasa they're busy trying to i don't know find saturn and they're getting a call yeah who's this josh dot oh uh did he work for us did he work for us? Did he work for us? No, no, he didn't. He didn't work for you. Oh, pastor. Not right. Sure. Um, hold on. I was busy with this rocket fuel, but let me just put that down for a minute. That's that's where we were at last year. So good. So good. Uh, okay. Love to see it. Hate to see it. Uh, You already talked about your Huskers. So congratulations. I already talked about trying to throw a pass to a left tackle.

So there's that. I love to see every time the Ravens offense plays football. I just, I mean, you know, I don't let anything go ever. Once upon a time, people said this guy should be a freaking running back come on no matter no matter how far away we get 47 years from now i'll be sitting around and there will be some record that whoever breaks joe webb's great great grandson has just broken lamar jackson's record and i'll be like you know they told him he should have been a running back that's what happened he's so good so good it's unbelievable i mean and he just he

elevates everyone around him i mean derrick henry and him are terrifying in the backfield and then that offensive line is just playing out of their minds right now. I mean, I know Bosa was a little dinged up, but they're just giving him time. I feel like this year more than last year, this year, not as much, he's not having to run and create all the time, right? That was part of the greatness of last year. It was like, no one can tackle him, but he's not having to do that as much this year. He's able to sit in the pocket and really only create when he has to create. And then, oh, by the way, let me just hand it to this 10,000 yard rusher that I have right here that's still unbelievable at football so the offense is so exciting and you know that they wanted to stick it to Greg Roman very very

hard last night and they got a chance to go out and do that I mean Harbaugh going for it on his own 16 I was like that's literally just because he's playing his brother. There is no other coach he does that against and be like, you think I won't, Jim? You think I won't? Alright, watch. I'm going to. It was just such a fun atmosphere for those guys to play last night. But man, Lamar is well on his way to being

up there with... He's got to win some playoff games. That's the only little blemish on his mark right now. Yep. What do you got? What do you love to see? i love to see saquon freaking barkley yeah my goodness sir just the way we broke down his tape on the o-line committee and just watching him play football is poetry in motion and the way he sets things up the burst of speed he still has to where you're watching where he's breaking through the line of scrimmage and he's even with like three other corners in a safety and the whole offense is going hands up touchdown you ain't catching four four right it's just

unbelievable watch and then as i watch that game i think to myself do you think brian dable and joe sheen watch eagles games like do you do you think to myself, do you think Brian Dable and Joe Sheen watch Eagles games? Do you think they watch this? Do you think that Mora's sitting in the back going, I really am really never letting hard knocks come into my building ever again because that quote's going to live with me throughout the entirety of my life of, hey, I don't want to see Saquon running for someone else. Don't worry, he'll just break the franchise rushing record

and go for a quick 250 and have more total yards himself than the entire rams offense it's okay but at least daniel jones is on the street okay so teams have bad off seasons but uh to put it on tape and put it on video and you can download it you can download it. You can save the file on your computer of all the stupid decisions that they made. Although I don't think Saquon is doing that for them because they're just a mess. But to let the cameras in the building to have one of the most epically bad off seasons

that has ever happened may be a tough decision. I can't imagine other teams are going to say yes that's after i was thinking about i think hbo is going damn it right like we actually finally it's the same thing where netflix wasn't able to find anyone for quarterback after the first year they're like dude i don't want to do that like they couldn't have picked a worse like whole entire sequence of events to be happening for them to be like hey who's gonna let us come in be like i'm giving you the finger get out right right uh i don't know that i have a other if we're not using the giants is to hate to see it uh i don't know if i have another hate to see it but i have another love to see it which is anthony richardson and bryce young hey everybody

actually let me let me put this in a little hate to see it because the outside perception of things sometimes and the wave of coverage of things and reaction is what makes the local newspaper and local fans. And they didn't even get to watch half the games because they were blacked out. You could do stuff like that. You could bench a young quarterback and be like, it'll be fine. Like he's going to come back in. Eventually, both guys have come out playing so much better. Richardson had a good game that was weird with penalties and drops and stuff. Bryce Young was fantastic. I was watching JTO Sullivan's breakdown.

Just a terrific game from these guys. Imagine a development, like sometimes it's gotta be this way. And it's nice to see, love to see those guys getting back on track a little bit, building some confidence as far as the wave of stuff and how there becomes one opinion that everyone just says loudly over and over the fantasy football. And we love our sponsor at underdog, but the fantasy football mentality, watch the tape of just the Jefferson's game guy at a great game. He just played a great game. He was open. He was blocking. He was grabbed and got past interference yards. Brandon Powell didn't have to do that. When it came to the pick play that got called. Brandon Powell could have just run his route and Jefferson would have caught the ball for

a touchdown. He played a great game. And the biggest discussion is what's happening with Justin Jefferson? Nothing, nothing. That's why you have a whole team. You play to win the game. You play to throw for 310 yards a pass and win and score 30 points you don't play for somebody's fantasy numbers so it also it shows

me the maturity of sam darnold of i don't have to force it to 18 yep i'm taking what the defense gives me and that's jordan addison one-on-one coverage cooking this corner why wouldn't i throw it to him there's hawkinson cooking the safety on him. You want to bracket 18? Go ahead. I have other weapons that can beat you. That just shows the maturity for Sam Darnold too on that front. I've kind of got a hate to see it. More of a like, man, you just hate to see that Alabama might not make the playoff after just the war cries that everyone had last week of how can you not put Bama in there I know that they're gonna be okay and Saban's on game day like Indiana's records just baby poop soft and look at Alabama and who they've had to play and then you go get beat by the doormat of the SEC right now that is oklahoma you just hate to see it bama fans you just hate to see

it hopefully uh the yankee fans that also love bama and dallas and the laker fans right they're all they're all having a tough go i mean the yankees didn't win the world series uh duke basketball might actually pick it up for them and then those bama fans will be okay i just wonder about like i've seen this has to be the worst quarterback class it's the quarterback class it's so bad i've seen milrow talked about like he threw it i was watching the game uh with our friend courtney cronin at a restaurant and he threw it through the television right to me. I caught it, and I ran it back for touchdown. He can't see anything out there.

He's a running back. He is a running back. He's a running back. Not like Lamar Jackson, who actually played really good quarterback. He just can't play quarterback. There's two quarterbacks in this class that I think will have anything worth a damn in the NFL, Shadur Sanders, Cam Ward. Wow, I don't know why my computer does that.

Shadur Sanders and Cam Ward. What just happened? I don why my computer does that. Shadur Sanders and Cam Ward. What just happened? I don't know. If I, like, thumbs up sometimes makes a little graphic on here, and then apparently a peace sign does. Balloons? Yeah. So, I don't know.

But, yeah, there's two quarterbacks. There's two quarterbacks. Shadur Sanders and Cam Ward are the only two quarterbacks worth anything in this next class. What is going on? I don't know. It's very strange. Very strange thing there.

I've never seen – never in the history of this podcast have there just balloons randomly showed up on the camera. What is going on? Hey, never know what you're going to get on Tuesday morning left. Maybe we could get footballs. We could. If we go like this, can we get footballs? Also, have you seen the latest projection that maybe Boise State's going to host a playoff game?

I would love that. I love Boise State. I want Tennessee to have to go play on the blue turf. Right? Like, come on up here, boys. You thought that this was a game? Come on to Boise, Idaho in December. Enjoy that.

That would be great. So I love their running back. Everyone does. Ashton Gentry. He's just astounding to watch. But I love their quarterback because their quarterback, they brought in a five-star kid, and they were like, I can't believe we got this five-star from USC who lost the job

to apparently two bad USC quarterbacks. And he comes to Boise state and the guy's name is the Madsen or something like little mad dog Madsen. He's not a big guy. Just kind of manages the game, hands it off, throw some touchdowns, make some plays. And I was like, this team's good. This quarterback's pretty good. Uh, they are a lot of fun to watch. They're one of the most fun teams in the nation, especially with him. Uh, you uh you could also throw out a like you hate to see it with colorado finally they finally start to get a little the hype like oh here we go and then no that's any given saturday you and i might need to start a college a college podcast too because it's so much fun college football has just been

so much fun this year and i think with the way that the world is turning in college football it's only going to get better it's only going to continue to get more fun every single year it's the most up in the air year i've ever seen in my life usually we know which teams are going to be in the championship by this time of year but i have no idea what's going to happen and i made a rule myself. It's really been the last two years because the whole week with purple insider is hectic. And I was like, I'm going to finish my work by Friday. So Saturday, I can just put a dent in that couch. Even when I go on the road, I don't, I don't go and visit all of Jacksonville's greatest sites. I could have, but if they they existed but they don't so i just i just post up and i

just watch college football and it has been tremendous tremendous season so anyway well we'll see what happens against the arizona cardinals and the rest of the way every tuesday we will be here and i thank you for your time and congratulations again, back to bowl season for the Nebraska Huskers. We'll see you next week. Football. Balloons. How did you do it? Peace signs.

It was peace signs. Now they're not showing up. There they are. Balloons. Yay. Football. Football.