Purple Insider - a Minnesota Vikings and NFL podcast - Jeremiah Sirles is sold on Sam Darnold and the Vikings as a legit contender

Episode Date: December 4, 2024

Sam Darnold has the Vikings sitting at 10-2 with just five games left in the season. Former Vikings lineman Jeremiah Sirles joins Matthew Coller today to discuss why he's sold on the idea of Darnold and the Vikings as legit contenders after another close win on Sunday. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Hey everybody, welcome to another episode of Purple Insider. It is time once again for Tuesday Morning Left Guard with former Minnesota Viking Jeremiah Searles. Although maybe this week going by former Buffalo Bill Jeremiah Searles. My gracious, what a fun game. I just want to say, Jeremiah, I saw people complaining about playing a football game in the snow. And why do you hate fun? What is wrong with you? You should be maybe jailed if you have that opinion for not wanting a ice bowl football game that was played in Buffalo.

The Vikings come back. Another crazy week in the National Football League, my friend. Yeah, December football in the NFL is just so glorious. It's so good. I mean, even to the Monday night game last night, vintage Jameis Winston, man. Just technically he threw five touchdown passes. Just two were to the wrong team. But, I mean, just the stakes are higher.

The games matter more. The effort's there. The speed of the game is going up. And I just, December is my favorite month of football for the NFL by far. It was a magical week. I mean, so many close games. Bo Nix looks like he could play football. And this was always the point during draft season when we would talk about it.

We would share our takes. We'd say, hey, I'm a little more skeptical about this guy guy or i like this guy a little bit more this plan a little bit more but it always came back to everybody's got odds once you get in the league and you never really know and we went through that whole draft season with a lot of folks not thinking that michael pennix or uh bo nicks were going to be first round talents or that JJ McCarthy was going to need five years to develop or something. And then before he got hurt, he looks like he's ready to play in the league. And then there's Sam Darnold, who was loved by the draft analysts when he came out and then was declared a bust. It's over. He's a backup. And now he plays like a franchise quarterback.

This league, man, is so hard to figure out with quarterbacks, because even with you and I, even as confident as I was in Justin Jefferson and his ability to elevate quarterbacks, if you told me going into this football game, Vikings Falcons, that Sam Darnold would be the wildly better quarterback this season than the guy on the other side. I would have been pretty shocked. Yeah. I mean, I think all of us would have been probably not. I mean, even Vegas who knows all right. Vegas knows all had this team at what?

Six and a half wins. And all of that was predicated on who's the gunslinger. Who's the trigger man? That's Sam Darnold, right? We've seen Sam. We know what Sam is. I'll tell you this. Every game he keeps winning like this, the price is going up, my friends.

$40 million, $45 million. Oh, we're going to the playoffs? Oh, we won a playoff game? $50 million, right? He knows it, and I think he also wants to win for the vikings for giving them a shot but there's also a piece of it that's going man i was promised a payday when i was drafted third overall right i was promised to be the guy play four years go get my contract make the money didn't work out it's right there on the horizon for him and anyone that's played in this league

you want to make as much money as fast as you can i couldn't be happier for sam that he's setting himself up to get a nice big payday at the end of this thing you would think that way as an nfl agent although it is like if you ever watch the prices right the yodeler who's climbing thing with every game where will he stop uh and so far he's not stopped what is it in your mind over the last three weeks and i know it was a tough first half for them. The Aaron Jones fumble really took the wind out of the sails. And then there was some sacks mixed in, which I'm sure people want you to break down.

But give me the big picture on these last three games, because after those three picks in Jacksonville, I'm sure that even inside the building, they went, oh, no. Is this the time where he just starts making bad decisions left and right? And O'Connell talked about it this week, how he got back to what he was doing early in the season. And I think that some of the sacks he's taken, some of the throwaways he's had have just been tremendous. We have not seen him say, I've got to win the whole game by myself. I can throw this ball away. I can

take this sack and we'll just get back on it. I can check this ball down. Actually, the Aaron Jones play Jefferson is open, but I like the check down still from him because we know that he can make those big plays, but you don't want him taking too many risks. I think that's kind of been what it's been is, is that he's coachable from Kevin O'Connell to sit down and say, here's what it was that was going wrong in Jacksonville. We can fix it. And then they fixed it. Yeah. I think you're right on track with that on, he has the big arm and we all know he loves to hunt down the field, right? He wants, he is, he is a hunter predator going down. I want to go down the field and push this ball as far as I can.

But the ability for him to take a seat and go, okay, why was it able to happen early? Where was the stumble? And to self-evaluate in the middle of the year is actually really hard to do. To say, hey, okay, full blank slate, how do I start over again? That's really hard to do. But testament to KOC of having those tough conversations, having that piece of it.

And I also wonder if there's also a little bit of he doesn't feel super threatened that J.J. McCarthy's in the way. There's not this pressure of, oh my gosh, if I'm not performing where I need to perform, they're going to go to the kid, right? Which is happening right now in Atlanta. But there's not that because no one's going to be like Nick Mullins. Yeah, you can go in there for, or Daniel Jones, we're going to elevate you. Sam knows he's the guy. And there's a confidence of when you know, you're the guy

having a little bit of, okay, deep breath, right? I don't have this guy running right up my back and he's going to have, I have to be perfect every game or else I'm going to get my job taken away. And that's where you talk about the throwaways, taking the sacks, having those things happen. He's not afraid that those types of things are going to lose him his job. So he's not forcing, Hey, I got to make this throw to keep my job. I think that's a big piece of what's happened over the last few weeks. Also, TJ Hawkinson coming back has been a major outlet for him over the middle of the field.

The quick out routes that turn to eight yards that turn into 11. That outlet underneath of Hawk being essentially just a giant slot receiver has been tremendous for Sam to use as a weapon. They're only going to continue to get more comfortable as the year goes on. I think the combination of him having the self-scout, not having the pressure, plus TJ Hawkinson really rounding back into form has kind of been the difference over the last three weeks. I think it has too.

And Kevin O'Connell, I've been trying really hard to think about how could I put my finger on what it is that he does? Because in the press conferences, he's always positive about guys. And he will, when something's not going right, he will acknowledge it. The right guard was not going right, and he acknowledged it. And they had to make a change, which, hey, really good game for Dalton Reister this week. I'm just saying, we have not seen pass blocking

at the right guard position like that for some time, I would say. Maybe since your guy Joe Berger was playing right guard a little ways back. But I think that Kevin O'Connell has a fix-it mindset rather than a critical mindset. Where a lot of coaches, it feels like it's just criticize the guy kind of hate the guy be they just here's what everything you're you're doing wrong and bleep and fix it as opposed to how about we work together to to find what's going to resolve this issue and i think that that's a subtle difference but it does feel like, and I know we had the critical mindset coach here before, but I think it goes for position coaches

too. And having two quarterbacks who have been through this, especially Josh McCown, who's been through many ups and downs over his career. I just think it, they know how to communicate with a quarterback to get those messages across without feeling like you are screwing it up for everyone when it comes to Sam Darnold. Well, both KOC and McCown have probably had those moments, right? I mean, they played in this league. They understand the pressure that comes with the position. They understand the eyes and the scrutiny and everything that comes with that type of position. And they've had meetings where they've walked out feeling like they just killed that guy's dog,

right? Or they've had meetings where they felt like they had a good game and the coach is like, it just wasn't good enough, right? So all that stuff is starting to go, okay, how do I mold my quarterback now that I'm on the other side and I'm on the mentor side and the coach side, how do I eliminate the stuff that made me feel like crap, but still take the constructive criticism side out of it and find a way to mold it in the right direction. And you can really only know that feeling if you play, right? Because there is a certain level of pressure and a certain level of expectation that comes when you wear the shield. It just does.

And we get paid a bunch of money to do it. So rightfully so. You get hyper-criticized for it. But there's a way to do it in the building that doesn't hurt your team or hurt the player. Which, by hurting the player, could possibly hurt the team depending on the position. And I think KOC's done a great job of whoever's at quarterback, whether it's Kirk Cousins, it's Josh Dobbs, it's Nick Mullins, it's Sam Darnold, it's going to be JJ McCarthy is coaching the player, not coaching the quarterback, right? Hey, this is how this

player needs to be coached. Whether it's, Hey, he needs me to be there for him to pick him up when things are bad, or, Hey, he needs me to yell at him a little bit and get him going a little bit. But he's able to coach the player, not the quarterback, and I think that's a great, great tool to have as a head coach. I think this dovetails a little bit into the Coach of the Year conversation. There are a lot of great nominees. Vikings fans won't like this one, but Sean Payton is making his case with another win in the way that Bo Nix has played Mike Tomlin once again Mike Tomlin just another way Matt LaFleur Matt LaFleur battling

through it Dan Campbell with the best team in the NFC Sean McDermott never seems to come up in this and yet here he is again they were revamping team, and then now they're a Super Bowl favorite. But Kevin O'Connell is right in that mix. I guess, what do you think his odds are to win that? I think it's a very, very difficult competition. But how many teams can you look around and go, you adopted a quarterback that was 14 games under.500 as a starter, and now you are right there with every team in the nfl yeah he's got to be in the conversation and it's just one of those things that this this award is so bizarre because in

reality if the chiefs continue to go and win everything why don't you just give it to andy reed again right it's such a subjective of what are the what's the criteria for coach of the year is it that your team was supposed to be really crappy and now they're really good? Or like, is it that you were, you are a hall of fame coach and you just continue to drag another decent team and make them slightly better.

Like I, it's such a up and down thing for what is coach of the year candidate stuff wise, but all the stuff that we've just mentioned and the way that he's done it, even looking back on his track record of previous years like i said with dobbs and how he can just get the best out of his guys he's got to be in the top three finalists for this and i think probably sean payton because he is winning with a rookie quarterback which no one else is really doing i mean the commanders kind of are but the offense

that bo nix is putting together with sean payton looks Drew Brees-esque all the way down the way they push the ball down the field. And then I think you got to do Mike Tomlin for kind of the same thing. You took a washed Russell Wilson, which everyone thought he was done washed, and he just had his career best passing game against the Cincinnati Bengals for 415 yards. And oh, by the way, your defense is still elite right so i think those three guys in my opinion are probably the the top three coach of the year candidates right now followed very closely by maybe nick sirianni and sean mcdermott i mean even dan quinn in washington i mean it's because you look at where that franchise was even a year ago it is completely down in the dumps and if they end up with

a 10, 11 wins, I mean, that's a pretty impressive job too. There are guys across the league who are deserving, but I don't know that any of them had a six and a half win total as the Vegas over under the Vikings were in the bottom, definitely in the bottom 10 might've been even in the bottom five in terms of how many wins they were supposed to end up with. And now they have a chance to go down the stretch here and even win half their games and end up with 12 or 13 wins with a quarterback who was a backup last season and had been left for dead in his NFL career. And now you're here. So I think he has a chance if they win some games, it's going to be talked about a lot

more. I think that through that stretch of road games where it's Tennessee, where it's Chicago, even there was a little bit of a meh with the Vikings. And I felt the energy start to pick up this week after finding a way to pull that one out, which is funny because I think that was their worst win of the year. But yet finding a way to pull that out and starting to say, you know, the Sam Darnold thing isn't going away. It's not regressing.

It's not disappearing. This team is actually good. So let's compare that to where the Atlanta Falcons are. For literal years, you and I talked almost on a weekly basis about the contract. Was the player good enough?

Was he physically gifted enough? And I just cannot help. I asked Wes Phillips today and it wasn't supposed to be a shot at Kirk, but it's just, we're all thinking it. I asked him today about what does arm talent do for you as a play designer and as a game planner?

And he said, there's just things that you can do that you can't with, you don't have a guy with a big arm. And he mentioned, and I, he was not taking a shot at Kirk. He didn't wink at me, but he said, when Darnold gets pushed off his spot, downfield routes are still in play. And I never really thought of it through those terms. Cause I always was trying to put my finger on like, what does the athleticism do? I know it's the running first downs that Darnold's able to get with the scrambling, but I think that that really solidifies the difference between these two quarterbacks is that when Darnold is pressured, when he's not even pressure, but even just moved, everything is still open with his ability to throw the football and in the past

you were paying top dollar for someone where that just wasn't the case yeah i mean in the perfect example of this is that deep dig route to addison coming across the middle they run a protection where they've got everyone's on the right so it's left the left guard break brandle and robinson are one on one and they both kind of get cross-faced at the same time. And Sam just scoots in between them perfectly keeps his eyes downfield and just flicks it. And it goes 30 yards on a rope and hits Addison dead in the chest as he's

coming across the middle. And you're right. When you start talking about what, what, what frustrated Kirk and we always talked about, you know, it was, hey, when Bradbury's getting up the middle, he's got to get off his spot. There's that stupid thing with my computer again. We're like, he gets up the middle, he's got to get his feet turned around,

get his hips set so he can really turn into that thing. The great quarterbacks that have great arm talent in the NFL really don't worry about their feet a whole lot. It's nice when they can get them set, but it's not pivotal. I would just watch the Josh Allen game. He had one where he threw it out of his own end zone to Dawson Knox with both feet in the air, and it went like 35 yards and dropped right in the bucket. And that is the kind of stuff that Sam Darnold can do

because he was that third overall pick talent coming out. It's crazy to think about because we don't view him as that anymore. Perception is reality. The perception of what Sam Darnold was is not, hey, he's like Jaden Daniels. He's the exact same. They both were third overall picks. He's like Jaden Daniels or Drake May.

No, he's a bottom tier. But that type of talent is still in there it's still in there it's incredible to watch and yeah i mean he's setting himself up because he is a very talented quarterback that was pretty much just excuse my french he was in a situation for a long time in the all the teams he was in that's the first time you've ever apologized i know language i know i know this is your show this is this is different i got it's your house i can't come in your house and just poop all over the rug but you do anyway uh yeah you're like the uh chapelle skit with like bleep your couch when

it comes to that anyway so with darnold the reputation part of it it has to matter the previous performance has to matter there's no way you could just throw out what somebody's done over their career. But what I found to be very interesting is that as soon as they signed Darnold, I spent, I don't know, the whole off season just asking anyone I could find who might have connection to Sam Darnold from Rich Gannon for a story I did to people in the league that I know. And even Mike Sandoe, who does that piece with all the NFL executives. The thing that kept coming back was number one, that KOC actually believed this was possible. It wasn't just a, I'm going to go out and say it. People who talked to him, he talked to Rich Gannon before or after they signed him about like, how can I make this guy you as somebody

who turns around their career? I talked to people who are with Carolina when he was there and what kept coming up is, and we all kind of think he could do this and that it wasn't like, yeah, guys, just don't even throw that out. And the fact that people thought he could do it, the fact that he beat out Trey Lance in San Francisco, the fact that he was good in 2022 and now the sample size is getting bigger and bigger it does make you think this is who he really is that other player was a guy who was young and in a very bad position this is the real quarterback and that certainly does complicate things for their future but kind of in the best way possible

i don't know if it does complicate i mean does it really complicate things like i don't know i don't know if it does because you can't get daniel jones here and i hate saying that but daniel jones had one pretty dang good year with new york right thanks Thanks, Ed Donatel. Appreciate you for the 40 million. I signed back with the Vikings because you guys got me my fat payday. The risk is that that old Sam is not gone either. Yes, this Sam is in here and he's talented and he's got all the tools and he's having a fantastic year. One year of that doesn't allow me to forget five years before that. That's still there. Now,

how often does that show up? Time will tell. Is it worth gambling 40 million over four on 40 million a year over four or 30 million a year over four i don't know i don't think so but that's going to be a conversation for quasi and koc and that's way above my pay grade and it's also how much do we believe that mccarthy is truly better than sam darnold because that's the true question is jj mccarthy going to be better than sam darnold or are we letting a better quarterback go out on the street, which you cannot do in this league when there's not enough of them running around?

So it's an odd comparison, but I think it's accurate. What green Bay did after they drafted Jordan love when they drafted Jordan love, they fully believe that he was going to be the quarterback the next year. They were getting rid of Aaron Rogers rogers and then aaron rogers won mvp and sam darnold has not played at the aaron rogers 2020 or 2021 level that's like all-time great quarterbacking but it's not that far away from the best quarterbacks in the league i mean if

we're talking about how many quarterbacks have been definitively better than sam darnold this year i think you can maybe get to about five, probably six. And when you reach top five to seven quarterback play, then it does become worth paying for that. Because that's a level of, even if JJ McCarthy is good, it's still hard to reach at that point. You better really believe it. And not only that, I think there's a have your cake and eat it too option if he continues to play this way which is the franchise tag and he would hate that

and they would hate that and nobody's happy but that's part of the business it's part of the way it goes it would allow them to kick the can down the road and still go out and buy free agents and what is that tag and it's probably going to be about 40 i think was it like 41 last year i don't know if it'll have changed a lot so maybe between 40 and 42 somewhere in there which is what they're paying for their quarterback position this year and they were still able to sign guys in free agency extend players and everything else you just have to tweak it a little bit more but suddenly you're just thrust into Super Bowl winning window and you you do have some experience with a feeling like this what did you think of Sam Bradford

when he arrived versus seeing him playing with your team and digs and feeling versus what his reputation was I think it is similar yeah no I think that's a great point you know when Sam showed up first of all you know you could tell he was a little bit down in confidence but just a tiny bit like he didn't just i mean when i first met him i expect to be like that's sam freaking bradford right like that's the dude and you could tell he was just kind of like yeah you know i've been through the ringer in this league like i'm glad you guys want me here and like i'm excited sean hill obviously isn't going to take this thing the distance but when he went in there against the packers and just lit them up all of us you mean like still the dude like that's still the freaking dude and it really just wanted

to get you to rally behind a guy like that because those guys are so rare right the the guys that have the god-given natural talent are just rare in this league it's not something that you come across every team does not have one and i didn't realize that when i was with philip rivers in san diego it's like this is freaking so cool everyone has a guy like this and then i came to no offense love teddy but he wasn't he was a young of that right he was just a young player i was like oh that's that's different like that's just a totally different vibe around the entire building versus when sam came in it was hey here's how things get done okay after that green bay game it was full steam ahead like you want me to run through the

wall sure how hard you want to do head first butt first like what do you want right all that stuff comes into it i think there's a little bit of this team right now sees that in Sam Donald too, of, Hey man, we're going to go as you go. You tell us what you need from us. And if it was, and as you said, no offense to case Keenum, but players know the deal when it comes to physical talent. Yes. All of you guys have great vision for who has every single skill uh i knew a um an nhl player who could tell you exactly how long people's arms were like he would look at someone be like yeah it's 33 and a half or whatever and he there was an intern we had who was a swimmer he had big traps and the guy was like you're a swimmer you got them big traps like just there's something about being a pro athlete you focus on that

these guys all know what they're seeing they know like other players the offensive linemen are talking about did you see that throw let's go back on that and the clicker what the heck this is an amazing throw they understand like this is a guy whose physical talent when you're down two scores game's not over because he can make plays. If you mess up on the offensive line, he can make plays. Receivers understand you're open even if you're not quite open because he might just gun it in there to you. And all this stuff sounds like the better quarterbacks in the league. There's two quarterbacks who have more big-time throws by PFF than Sam Darnold.

Got to guess who they are? Josh Allen. Yep. Lamar Jackson. Joe Burrow. Joe Burrow. I always forget about the Bengals because they're terrible. Oh, man, they can't stop anybody.

I'm just making the point that when we talk about old Sam, that kind of thing, if he didn't have this physical skill and if it was Kelly Holcomb coming in here and then I'd be like, okay, well, this is kind of cartoony and silly and it's just a magical fun year, but it's not real. This just feels a lot more real. Uh, however, I do want to ask you if they don't block the other team's players at all and they just run it Sam then he's less good when you watched back what happened for the first part of that game for why Arizona was able to get after Darnold yeah it was it looked like miscommunication up front because there's been a lot of not this year has not been a lot of what I call free runners, where there's just guys that are unblocked.

But I don't know if it was something schematically Arizona was doing or Bradbury and Sam were getting fooled, but it always seemed like we were turning the runway and here comes two blockers off the other way. And, oh, someone should have blocked him, right? And then it just rattled Sam because they hit him early. They got to him early. They rattled his timing. And that's, right? They got to him early. They rattled his timing

and that's what every opposing defense wants to do. I mean, I can remember it's ingrained in my brain sitting in games before Mike Zimmer, right? Like get to his feet, get to his feet, infect his throat. Okay. Got it, Mike. Right? Like, and every defensive coordinator says that early in games because it does throw the timing off of everything. But for Sam to be able to take the sacks, take the hits, readjust, come back in, and then the offensive line on the real time with Coach Cooper getting on the sideline, hey, how are we adjusting? How are we getting here?

Getting clean back up. I thought he did a great job of responding, of getting back to that and not letting that affect him throughout the entire game and coming back and even all the way down to the game- winning drive. I mean, the second they crossed the 35, it was cover zero, cover zero, cover zero, cover zero. And he just continued to find ways to battle when they're sending seven, we only have six. Hey, I know that's one-on-one with 18 somewhere. Let's find it. Right. He just, he's understanding more and more of every week. Hey, now that I'm playing at this level, defenses are going to change stuff that they put on tape.

They're not going to let me and KOC watch their game tape, put our plan together, here's how we're going to pick them apart. They're going to have what we used to call the flavor of the week every week to try and get me off my spot and try and change things up and mess with my eyes or do whatever type of things. That's going to be the evolution. When you're playing this well at quarterback, they have to do something like that.

And I thought that Arizona did a nice job of cover zero being more of their answer, how to try and rattle Sam Darnold. His confidence over these last three weeks has been like a guy who already got the contract. I mean, he's played like he has complete ownership of this team. And every single time it feels like, ah, okay, this is where it falls apart, or this is where his confidence, or, oh, this was the no-show game. They're going to get blown out by the Cardinals,

and then everyone's going to call them a fraud, and we were on the cusp of that, and to turn that around and then run the team down the field with two quick scores the way that he did, every single challenge that he's faced is sort of like if you play old video games and you get to boss and then you beat that boss then you get to the next boss they get harder each time and you got to do more crazy stuff with

zelda or whatever uh or link uh zelda's the person he's trying to save uh but anyway not the point uh it just uh that's what it feels like it's been it's felt like every single week has offered some kind of new challenge to him the chicago thing where he's putting the ball cap on thinking about the postgame press conference and then you got to run out there for overtime there's a holding there's a false start there's a crocodile bit his leg and he's still throwing and make it plays. It gets them to the game winning drive. And it feels like he's able to overcome so much.

And maybe that's just been forged over the years that it's like, whatever I'm dealing with now, this is much better than what it was before. And that was, I think it was probably like week four or five when we were talking, we were like doing our meter. Right. And I just said, I need to see him in critical moments in order for me to put my stamp of approval on him or not. Because early in the year, it was just blowouts.

Hey, blowout, blowout, blowout. And that's fun and that's great. But the great quarterbacks make their money in crunch time. They make their money when Chris Berman's going to be doing the fastest three minutes and it's going to be highlights of you running your team up and down the field and to your point every week's been one of those moments we're going okay Sam show me sink or swim and he is swam every single time he's the found the way to get it done and that's why just this week you know I was talking people

I was like guys I'm ready to say the Vikings are a contender like I'm not I'm not I've been kind of like you know we'll see can they make a run watching the NFL and watching the teams right now that are hitting stride into December not plateauing or maybe even on a little bit of a skid but truly hitting stride and getting better and better the Vikings are top 14 top three team in the entire NFL right now and with Sam Darnold to helm if he keeps playing like this I really do think they are putting themselves in Super Bowl contention I mean 10 and 2 just historically you're there yeah and they don't have the biggest point differential at 10 and 2 but they also don't have the worst like was happening in 2022 it was like minus 50 wasn't it uh it was I don't think it was quite that bad but after after the Dallas blowout, it was pretty rough.

And they finished the season because they also got blown out by Green Bay at the end of the year, finished the season, I think, negative on that side. It was negative in the point differential. So unless they get beat by 78 the rest of the way, that's probably not going to happen this year. But I do think that the rest of the way will kind of tell us everything we need to know because there are challenges including kirk cousins coming in here the focus is going to be on cousins return and i always think that in the nfl when you see a team have their worst

moment the week before and then everyone goes oh yeah they're the worst team ever you're just gonna kill them that's the bad thing for you he i my thought when i saw the the pick to end the game was that's not the the kirk i don't want to face is the one that's got to bounce back because he just this is my biggest compliment for kirk cousins why he made it so far is he can have the worst game of all time and then the very next week he'll come out and throw for 400 yards and lead a victory for you in the last moments or something, because he just has that mindset to move on to the next week. So what would be your concern level?

Throw a meter out there. If you like that, Kirk cousins in the Atlanta Falcons are going to give this Vikings team some problems. I'm going to put it in the baby blue. Really? Because I don't think, as much as I do think that Kirk is going to bounce back and have a better game, I don't think Atlanta's defense can stop us. I don't. Though they have some talented guys, you know, Matthew Judon up front

and working around, but this offense can score now. And if we don't, if we don't hurt ourselves by turning the ball over, putting the ball on the ground, I mean, we should have beat Arizona by at least 10, right? If you, if you really take away the turnovers in that game in the red zone, that's a 10 to 14 point win. Can Atlanta keep up with us offensively after what i've seen not just from the last week but the last month of the atlanta falcons right it's really easy to look back at last week and go yeah kirk had a bad game he'll bounce back it's been a bad month he hasn't thrown a touchdown since november 4th i believe right that's a long time of not going around until

being able to throw touchdowns. So I just don't think this offense is in rhythm right now to keep up with the Vikings offense. I think there's going to be a lot of emotion for Kirk coming back and all that. But if you look at this Vikings defense, there's really only three or four guys that like would think like, Ooh, a Kirk revenge game, right? A lot of new faces, a lot of new faces that Kirk's just another quarterback coming back into Minnesota, like from a player's's perspective obviously from a coach's perspective it's different but I don't think it's as much a Kirk revenge game uh that the Vikings are that people might want to make it out to be I think it's just hey another good team coming in here that we might see again in the playoffs so we

want to send them away thinking hey they can't beat us you know uh since you were very descriptive in your color with the baby blue I'll go with uh a an easter yellow you know like that light that lightish yellow i like it i think that the vikings are a better football team than the falcons by a pretty significant margin with the discrepancies on defense and with the fact the quarterback cannot run a play action because his legs don't work. There is no juice on the football. That thing is just flopping through the air at this point. And I think that what the chargers did last week was probably game planned for like, we're going to jump everything because that ball's not going to get there. And so the Vikings are taking the ball away extremely well. You could see a Byron Murphy

pick. You could see a Blake Cashman interception jumping in front of something but the reason I have some concern is one I have seen this movie before yes Kirk is one in five they lose to the Falcons he throws four picks or something and then they're in the playoff hunt three four weeks later like I've seen it too many times the truth to all rumors game for digs he's not even coming to practice that week comes out, beats the giants. Just, he has a knack for this. The other thing is too, that when teams have gotten the ball out of the quarterback's hands really quick, they have succeeded in putting together long drives. The Vikings were on the field for 82 snaps against last week. This defense has to be gassed. I know that Flores kind of joked around like,

well, drink some Gatorade this week, get on the bike, you'll be fine. But defenses, it does add up. And they had a lot of plays in Chicago. They had a lot of plays last week and you're not chasing around. Nobody's here. You are chasing around some of the best weapons in the NFL. And I think if Kirk can get the ball out to them quickly, there's yak there. There's long drives there that other teams have used to take advantage of this forest defense. But the problem is I haven't seen Atlanta do that at all. They want to be pushed the ball to Drake London down the field. And Kyle Pitts had zero catches last week and they're trying to get a screen game going with Bijon, but it's like third and 13. So

everyone knows it's a screen. It's just such as a clunky offense right now that you Matt have a better game plan for the Atlanta Falcons than the Atlanta Falcons do right now. Cause I agree with you. How do we get Kirk back on trap? It's a screen to Drake London. It's a hitch over the middle to the giant known as Kyle pits, right? It's every now and then sprinkle the outside zone, the toss pitches, those type of things. They're just, they are so lost on offense right now. And they're on a skid. Everything's crazy.

So I just think that this might, I have respect for Kirk, and I agree with you. I've seen this movie. But I think this could be a defining win for the Minnesota Vikings launching themselves into December. I think so, too, because, well, not only I mean, you go to 11 and two, then hold. Oh, we're cooking with gas, cooking with gas. I was talking about this team last night.

And you ever have the moment where you say a word and then you're not sure if it's a word, you know, and then you're like, wait, am I just like a name? A name that you're not real sure if it's a word you know and then you're like wait am i just like a name a name that you're not real sure if it's a name yeah and uh so i'm like or yeah or even someone's name is that who it was and last night i was like look this is a 10 and 2 football team i was like wait let me pull up the standings let me just check are they really a 10 and 2 football team right now and i think you go to 11 and 2 you are in in rare air in the NFL to get to that point. But I think from a fan's perspective of buying into this team, it has been a storyline.

I think how hesitant people are to buy Sam Donald and to buy this transition year as actually being really a truly, you can compete for a Super Bowl year. And I had always earmarked the game against the packers as the defining game for the fans of this season and i still think that's true but this is one of those types of games that if you lose this one it will be a lot of deflated feelings of okay well you know maybe they're just not as good as we thought they were initially, but you win this game 24 to 10 and it's kind of, it's kind of on like, then you are talking about

this because that'd be a six game win streak, a five game win streak earlier in the season. Then it's really, all right, this is a, this is a 14 league from now on. And the Vikings are in that 14. Yeah. I mean, they go on a-game win streak here. You're saying the two hottest teams in the NFL right now are the Buffalo Bills and the Minnesota Vikings. Pretty good company to be in going into December when you're talking about the normal faces at the top. Hey, here are the Chiefs. Okay, there's the Bills again.

Oh, look, there's Pittsburgh. Oh, Minnesota, right? Haven't seen them as contender talk for a long time now, but they've earned it. They've earned all that rights. And guys playing above what we thought they'd be, Granada's playing far above expectations of what I ever thought he could come in and do as the first-year guy here.

Van Ginkle. I mean, you're seeing guys like Bullard stepping up in big-time places. Guys that have been here that are just playing better. And I don't know if that's a Sam Darnold effect of everyone buying in or if it's just a, Hey, we have a chance here, lightning in a bottle. Let's hold onto it. But you're getting the best version of every Minnesota Viking that you can see right now. And that's why they're winning these football games.

I think it's a combination between the chemistry. And I asked Brian Flores about that today, and he was just talking about how the parts have to fit together in the right way. you mentioned Jonathan Bullard he's important to this now if you just tried to build your defensive line around him anywhere on any team you're probably not having a lot of success but here the run stuffing the body moving in the blitzes it's like really perfect and Brian Flores is great at understanding the puzzle pieces and how they go together and how he has to work them all with scheme but it's also a little bit like and this is where you should maybe fans are a little nervous because you just don't get this season all the time in baseball there's an idea of like if a bunch of guys have a career year at

the same time and it's hard to repeat if, if everybody in the lineup just happens to have it click, they're in the right parts of their career. They were just healthy. That season, whatever it is, is a little bit like that where Grenard is playing above his level and Van Ginkle and Cashman and there's, there's health and it's just, you got to take advantage when that year is upon you. So that leads me to one more question which is what's keeping you up at night so now you're you're sold they're they're in they're a contending team they're legit it's on baby purple insider deep into the playoffs actually talking vikings not being like this should i draft a corner but uh so what's uh what's worrying you turnovers yeah turnovers it's the great equalizer and you

know how i know that because iowa beat nebraska with us having two turnovers while iowa went five first downs oh for 10 on third down 168 yards total nebraska has 338 yards 25 first downs moving the ball up and down the field one stat two turnovers to none it's the great equalizer in football turning the ball over the aaron jones fumbles sam darnold throwing a bad pick can we overcome those moments that's what keeps me up at night with this team is hey got to take care of the football got to be a little bit more clean with the football in critical situations though it's how you lose big time football games down the stretch by the numbers for darnold he is playing at a high rate of turnover worthy plays but not higher than the other best

quarterbacks in the league so he's not playing higher than Josh Allen, for example, when it comes to, or even Jared Goff, who had the five interception game, his turnover where the play rate is different. And the Aaron Jones, I just don't know what to say about fumbles. I know. The Vikings fumble at an absurd rate since KOC took over, but what would he be doing? Oh, he believes in them too much and

then they're like KOC loves us I'm not gonna hold the ball oh no like what it's just a weird thing that I assume will stop happening and is random but I remember like the Patriots used to not fumble and the Chiefs used to never fumble when they had Marty Schottenheimer if you look at their turnover numbers. But that can't be something that they're coaching, right? It doesn't make any sense. Turnovers are – fumbles are kind of contagious because when you start having a fumbling issue,

when it starts – when it initially starts, it's kind of the taboo, like nobody talk about it, right? Like we all know it's not happening. Like he'll get it fixed, nobody talk about it right like we all know it's not happening like he'll get it fixed nobody talk about it then when it becomes a problem now it's it's all we talk about hey two hands on the football this week right boys yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah two hands on the football we're in the team meeting night before number one key to the game turnovers right two hands on the football and then it's all consuming And I've seen this happen to backs

before where they think about it so much that it's almost paralysis. It's almost like, oh my gosh, I have to hold on to the football, hold on to the football. Oh, I didn't see that guy coming. Right. Cause all they're thinking about is ball security. And now they're getting other stuff is happening on the field and that they aren't seeing it in real time. Now it's a bad hit from behind, or it's a strip because they aren't making a right read or they're slow on the field and that they aren't seeing it in real time. Now it's a bad hit from behind or it's a strip because they aren't making a right read or they're slow on the reads. It can be all consuming. I don't think that's the issue, but I have seen that happen before and nobody wants to

fumble. No running back is like, oh, shoot. Like I think about like Chuba Hubbard at the end of the Panthers game. Dude didn't want to fumble. Like it just, it is part of the game. Those guys get paid a lot of money too and they're punching and ripping and grabbing at that ball that's a hard thing to hold on to so i it's not a concern for me right now but it does like if i can point to one thing on

this offense that does concern me that's really it i also think that the nfl i have to look into the numbers in this has defenses have put so much more emphasis into causing fumbles because offenses are succeeding with long drives and sustaining drives and underneath passes and running the football has been successful for a lot of teams this year. And the peanut punch took a little while to take hold in the NFL. But once everybody grew up learning that, that's how they tackle. I was

asking Matt Daniels about it today. And he said, every tackler is taught to close their fist when they tackle. So it punches the football when it's coming in on the tackle. It's just part of how people tackle now. And sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn't, and you gotta be on the right side of it working or you're, you just have bad luck. So I tend to think of it as more of a luck thing. So you think they'll beat the Atlanta Falcons? I do. I think so too. I'm a little more hesitant than you.

So we can get to love to see it, hate to see it. What I hate to see is athletes being pepper sprayed. And I don't think that it was a great situation or anything i don't like brawls i don't like people getting hurt there's a lot of random people out there there's a sideline reporter trying to do her job this will always i always get nervous when i see fans run on the field it's so great oh there's fans on the field and then you know you got people trying to steal equipment you got all sorts of just randoms out there you don't know who these people are what they're gonna do and so i understand the fear that maybe the security was feeling as that was going

on the brawl between ohio state and michigan you can't pepper spray athletes i mean i guess if they're swinging helmets or something or if someone's truly in danger but they were just pepper spray and anybody who walked up pat 40 goty got pepper sprayed. What are we doing here? College football and security need some work. Yeah, and I don't know how you stop the field rushing, but I'm completely with you. I don't like fans on the field. It's asking for a bad situation.

You've talked about guys that it's a, especially it's a close loss rivalry game, and all of a sudden you've got some 19 year old drunk dude in front of your face that all you have to do is go like this. And he's going to go flying because you're superhuman. He's no more muggle, right? Like you have that whole piece of it there. Security in general.

I'm also, I kind of put that a little bit on Sharon Moore and Ryan day, like go take control of this situation, man. Like they panned to Ryan day and he literally mouths what happened, right? Like, dude, get out there, get your guys, Hey, Sharon Moore, get out there, get your guys off the football field, right? That if there's anyone they're going to listen to, it's not the rent a cop with the pepper spray. It's the head football coach, right? That my bad dad's here gotta go right so i hated

that i also i just hated the brawls at all this weekend i get it rivalry it's great there's no place for that in college football there's no place for that in any sport play within the game if you lose suck it up man you lost it sucks go to the locker room but i do think that the whole plant the flag in the middle of the field thing you're just asking for trouble like and thanks baker this is your fault because you started this when you planted it in ohio state when you guys beat them but i just think that whole plant the flag thing is just gonna the ncaa probably will do something about it because that's the number one thing that leads to bad news bears they're just they need to leave the field like everybody needs to leave the field uh in the needs to leave the field, uh, in

the NFL, all the guys know each other. They're all adults. They all walk out, they high five, they say whatever. I think that when it happens at college, say hi to each other in the locker, in the, you know, down in the tunnels or whatever, just get off the field, uh, needs to happen after this because it was, that was the whole, it was such a great rivalry week. And yet the biggest story coming out of it was how everybody was fighting each other yeah uh in terms of uh love to see it i love to see anthony richardson bouncing back took mine oh no how about bryce young you want to talk about anthony richardson i'll talk about bryce young sure sure okay bryce young's playing football man he played a really good game for about the fourth straight time.

He's making plays. He's reading defenses. He's throwing to Adam Thielen, who's making a one-hand catch. Adam Thielen is giving him somebody to actually throw to. And just with seeing it up close with Sam Darnold and what it's meant to him and his teammates to have him bounce back from so many tough years, you just know how hard that is and how much these guys go through when you're a bust or when you're benched and everything else.

And Bryce Young has shown some real serious resilience for a team that's not good. And Dave Canales, they're coaching it up as well. And I think his approach was right to bench him, but then bring him back in, get that deep breath. And now he's playing really well. his approach was right to bench him, but then bring him back in, get that deep breath. And now he's playing really well. So I like when somebody kind of proves everybody wrong, like, oh, he's benched, he's busted, whatever. And then he comes back and shows, no, this guy can actually play in the NFL. Yeah. And I mean, Xavier Leggett starting to figure his life out too. I think he's

going to be a dude Chubba Hubbard's having a great year. I mean, as far as he goes, they put some stock into the left tackle, the right tackle taking jumps this year. So everyone around him is playing better, which comes back to our original argument. A quarterback is a product of his environment. You can be the most talented quarterback in the world. If you have no one to throw the football to and you have no protection, it does not matter. He has the talent.

And now he's getting a chance with some people stepping up around him to showcase that talent. So yeah, I agree. Bryce is playing a great thing. My love to see it. Anthony Richardson, man. And also Shane Steichen putting your balls on the table and saying, we're going for two, which you and I scream for all the time. Just go for end it here. Let's not do this back and forth and to watch him take good ball up and down the field, making good decisions, picking his choices of when to throw the ball deep and not just doing it on a play-after-play-after-play basis, he is playing like the second overall pick that we knew he could be. And again, shout out to Shane Steichen.

Same thing. Deep breath, Anthony. Things are going well. Putting you back out there is probably not best for me. It's not best for you. Take a breath. Come back in. He looks like a totally different quarterback these last three weeks. To watch him at the end of the game, two-point conversion, who's putting the ball in your hands? Oh, yeah. We're putting it in Anthony Richards' hands. He's going to run it right up the middle, run over three guys and score. Love that for him because I think he's too great of a talent

to write him off because he has a chance to be great in this league. He has Josh Allen vibes. He always kind of did. He's got toughness. He's got leadership. And for him to bounce back a really impressive last one for me is actually both love to see it. Hate to see it.

Love to see Greg Olson understanding game theory. How about a guy who is a former player that, you know, most of the networks just want that guy to be like, yeah, you know, they're doing a good job out there. Here's another cliche for you. And he truly gets it. Why Arizona should have gone for that fourth down rather than kicking the field goal.

And just a great, a great analyst. Love to see that for the Vikings getting a really good analyst call in their games. Hate to see that he's not the number one with Tom Brady because Brady on Thanksgiving, I'm sorry to the 35 million people that had to watch that. It's just give them time. I think he'll improve, but it's almost every play. He'll be like, ha, the giants beat me that one time. Remember? Ha ha ha and you're like

yeah dude that joke's kind of been really old um we get it you lost one two super you know like oh that reminds me of when i was checking down to kevin falk yeah no one knows who kevin falk is but you know like also the the energy that greg brings yeah it's it's the perfect amount like it's not over the top like romo sometimes but it's the exciting energy like it's the former player it's the him on the sideline talking to his buddies man did you just see that throw but the analytical brain of greg is phenomenal he doesn't make it too complicated he makes it just smart enough and he has great job of pacing hey i have a 30 second window here to fill in what I'm doing. I'm not going to talk over my play-by-play guy.

I mean, as a guy that's called games before and understands how hard it is to get that done, I think Greg does the best job out of anyone right now. He's my A1 color commentator guy for all of the NFL right now. And he's the one that belongs on the Super Bowl broadcast, in my opinion, but it will be whenever fox i don't know who has it but whenever fox has it it'll be tom brady i just hope that tom brady puts in the work i hope that after this maybe he'll never know how much he's getting

roasted and what the analysis is because he's tom brady no one wants to say it i hope he puts in the work after this or just goes and works for the Raiders and tries to help them win a Superbowl. Because to me, what I hear is a guy not putting in the work versus a guy putting in the work. I hear the, Hey, I want all the Superbowls. I'm a celebrity. I'm just here for this. And another guy being like, no, I'm going to focus so much. It's why and people complain about Collinsworth. The man's like 70 years old. Now Collinsworth at his best is as good as anybody 10 years ago has ever done it because he put in the work he wasn't some big star player he was as analytical and energetic and I feel a lot of the same things when I hear

Greg Olson so I hope they figure it out or Tom Brady figures it out yeah I don't really have a hate to see her so I'm gonna do another love to see it jamis mother trucking winston that man is a treasure he needs to be protected and he's a quarterback that you don't want him to be your team's quarterback but you want him to be you want him to be someone's team's quarterback so that you can watch him every week and not feel any type of way about it. Because when he's out there just letting that thing rip and go, you know it's eventually going to come crashing down. And so it's kind of like the train wreck, like, oh, is it going to happen? And then two pick sixes, like in the end zone, throws a pick. But I love that man.

And I hope someone pays him to compete for a starting quarterback spot because he deserves it from a truly entertaining standpoint. It's half man, half circus is what it really is. It's just a circus every time he's out there. Yeah. And he's from the analytical standpoint, he's the reason why passing yardage is not the way we evaluate quarterbacks because when you're playing in a game like that where you're giving up a million points throw pick sixes throwing for 500 yards doesn't win you the football game but that was that's one where isn't he the first quarterback ever to like have a touchdown

interception ratio like exactly the same it was like 30 and 30 or something ridiculous like that did you see that he passed josh Josh McCown for the biggest yardage game in Cleveland Browns history or whatever it was? And it was like, what are Browns? What is this? Well, Aikman didn't even know what to do with him. Like, you know, on the broadcast, he's like, yeah, you know, he gave him a better chance than Deshaun did. Then at the end, he's like, I don't know. I mean, the interceptions are a a problem you don't even know what to say about the guy but gosh he's entertaining it's it's like someone coming in and just shooting half court threes for an entire game and making a lot of them you know like yeah what is happening yeah

so he breaks the game but in a weird way anyway uh well we'll see if we're talking about the 11 and 2 vikings when we come back next week. So thank you for your time, Jeremiah. And thanks, everybody, for listening slash watching. As always, football. Football.