Purple Insider - a Minnesota Vikings and NFL podcast - Jeremiah Sirles says the Vikings offense is COOKING

Episode Date: January 1, 2025

The Vikings just put up 441 yards on the Packers defense as Sam Darnold spread the ball around to all of his weapons on Sunday. Matthew Coller is joined by former Vikings offensive lineman Jeremiah Sirles for the final podcast of the year. Coller and Sirles discuss the Vikings' win over the Packers and how it sets up Minnesota for a massive game in Week 18 against Detroit. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

🎵 Hey everybody, welcome to another episode of Purple Insider. Matthew Collar here, and it is time once again for Tuesday Morning Left Guard to talk about the most obvious outcome that we expected from day one, the 14-2 Minnesota Vikings headed to Detroit to play for the conference. We knew we would be here. If you don't listen to any of the other shows that we ever did the entire season, we were certain of this.

I promise, Jeremiah Searles, what is going on, man? How you feel? Look at this. I mean, I can remember when we signed Sam Darnold and you and I planted the flag, Super Bowl or bust. I mean, we both, we text each other and we're like, I planted the flag Super Bowl or bust right I mean we we both we text each other and we're like this was the missing piece this was the link that we needed Super Bowl or bust and here we are knocking on the doorstep I mean but in all reality it's just been incredible to be a part of you know I was a part of that 2017 Minneapolis Miracle team

which just was a magical season in itself. And then to look at this season and be like, dude, that doesn't even, that really doesn't even shake a stick at this season. Like as great as that season was, and obviously being a part of it was different, but from a fan's perspective, this season has just been, it's had everything.

It's had drama. It's had content. It's had blowout win, close losses. Like if you're playing bingo of Minnesota Vikings football season, you've got bingos everywhere because there's not much that has happened or has happened that we've got to meet a part of. And I'm just so excited that week 18 means something. And of course, just the bingo board now has afraid of kicker going into, uh, big games with Will Reichard. But I want to start out in the most sensible place here with you, which is along the offensive line, because Sam Darnold,

no doubt put on one of the best performances that I've seen from a quarterback when covering the team in the biggest moment against the toughest team that he's faced in weeks. It just could not have been more impressive. And when I watch back the tape, the thing is from the press box or TV, you have certain angles and you go, Oh yeah, he kind of whipped it in there. And then you watch the tape and you go, Oh, he whipped it in there to some of the tight windows, the details of the way he operated the offense that he was doing no huddle. He's making good decisions with the football outside of one throw, which I think

was probably just a good play by green Bay. But the way that the offensive line protected in that game, he was, I believe off the top of my head, 26 for 30 passing with 315 yards when he was kept clean in the pocket. Did the offensive line just rise to the challenge? Are they getting better playing with each other? Would we be making too much of it to say, like, if they play like that, this offense probably can't be stopped as far as a passing game. Yeah, I don't know if Coach Cooper crawled up their ass or if KOC did or if they all just kind of looked at each other and we're going man we've got something really special

here we can't be the weak link we can't be the ones to screw this up because the performance from week last week where we're sitting there going man the left side is is struggling we're worried too this week I mean there was times where I'm sitting there I'm screaming at Sam to throw it because it's been like three seconds and I'm like there's no one around him like he's just he's just sitting there flat-footed like he's not even like on his toes he's just flat-footed and testament to those five guys I mean Blake Brandel uh Dalton Reisner Garrett Bradbury Brian O'Neill and Cam Robinson I tip my hat to you, my friends, because that is a talented Green Bay front, and they just took it to them, and I even thought they did a pretty good job in the running game, you know, covering up for, obviously, we need a little bit more movement,

Dalton, but that's not going to happen, and I just come to fully accept that is who you are, but overall, it may be one of their best performances of the year against, you know, the type of talent. I think they've had better performances against lesser talent, but when you talk about Vikings O-line, Packers D-line, and the clash there, I mean, it was 70-30 Vikings O-line all day long, and I'm right there with you. You start talking about all the different weapons we have

and how we match up against the rest of the teams. If the O-line plays like that, I don't know how you stop three and 18, and, Oh yeah, we want to cover them. Where's Naylor at where's Hawkinson at like everything was firing, everything was clicking and the game was not as close as the score really made it out to be. Unfortunately, we let them kind of come back in the end, but I thought the offensive line chef's kiss. I don't think that you can understand just by watching the game and not looking back at the tape how important it is for those guys to be able to hang on. And even when they're being pushed back at times, that's fine because Darnold can make up for that. But when you look at those route combinations down the field and even think of the Jalen Naylor touchdown, he needs time to let that stuff develop. And maybe the most impressive one of those was the Jordan Addison touchdown

where he comes to a full stop. I don't know how many times I've ever seen this route actually work, where a guy comes to a full stop and then swirls around and goes into the end zone. That takes three and a half seconds. That's not something that's just drop back, hit the back foot and go. And even just the level, they like to use the word strain, the level of strain on that play from Brian O'Neill. He gets beat initially off the edge,

pushes the guy by Darnold. It's a very easy quarterback movement, step up in the pocket. And there's Dalton Reisner who threw his guy on the ground on that play. And I was like, oh, okay. And how about a little, what does this stat mean? Dalton Reisner is now 12th ranked as a pass blocker in the NFL by pro football focus. And I'm looking at that performance, like this, this decision from Kevin O'Connell to say, we're pulling the chute. We're moving on to Dalton Reisner yes he's not perfect in the run game but we need these developing pass routes and he's the one that's going to help us it's eliminated the weak link and I've always thought that it's weak link systems is the offensive line if you have one or two guys that they can attack constantly you're going to be in trouble but now

they really don't with the way Dalton Reisner's played. Yeah, and we all know Kevin O'Connell hates running the football. I mean, so if he was going to look and go, guard that can pass protect, guard that can run block, pass protection, right? And you knew that, but I agree with you. Making that move and finally saying, okay, this was moving on, I think we all knew, hey, Dalton's the better pass protector, but can he be the better overall prospect? And I think that with his elevation there, even with his shortcomings

in the run game, he is the better overall guard on this football team. And I also think that you can't talk enough about how well and how steady Garrett Bradbury has played this year. You know, we haven't really brought him up one time on this show. And I can remember, I mean, multiple times during 2021, 2020, where you and I are going, man, the center is really struggling or he's giving up these pressures. He's riding Kirk's face, like all these things. And he has just continued to impress me with his ability to get better and better every single year. Back to your point about the windows, you know, as you watch this tape, you're realizing that these deep routes are what i like to refer to as like third window throws right where it's hey clears

the linebackers clears the safety behind the safety right like it's one two three and you can't there's no way you can speed that up unless just holding the football right and with the routes that he loves to call and the developing, it puts so much strain. The farther receivers can get down the football field, the more the DBs kind of panic because you play that zone coverage or you're playing man, a lot of green grass when you start getting away from all the bodies.

And now you're, okay, I'm the middle linebacker and I'm sinking. Am I sinking for this deep in route here? And then the safety's like, well, is he going to sink deep enough for it? am I sinking for this deep in route here? And then the safety's like, well, is he going to sink deep enough for it? So I better take this deep in route. Here comes Jefferson over the top. I mean, it's not the, I think when people hear route combinations are like, oh, it's the pass calls. It's the way that they move behind the safeties and the way that they mesh and they charge even down the field that makes those safeties have to decide and

choose. Cause when you're running full speed at that back end if a safety gets caught flat-footed he's got to just kind of pull the trigger and make a decision and that's where we're seeing guys starting to come over more and more wide open and they just keep stinking back sinking back sinking back as dbs and all of a sudden it's like oh well there's hawkinson right like there's just answers everywhere but it all comes back to him being able to get through his progressions and staying clean. This reminds me of something I wrote about at the very beginning of the year. I think it was maybe two weeks into the season. Kevin O'Connell had kind of revealed to us that he would work with Bobby McCain, who is a longtime veteran of the league. He's played a little bit. You saw him play in Seattle, but he's mostly been practice squad or hasn't played, but he really knows the game because he's been around for such a long time. And he played for

Flores, super high IQ guy who loves the game. And he would test things out against the safeties because this is who Kevin O'Connell is. There are some offenses, the old West coast kind of attacked the linebackers, these deep routes, and it's kind of Bruce Arian style to me, it goes after the safeties and it forces them to make decisions. Or if they screw up and they're not on point with some sort of technique, they're in trouble right away. And a great example, there's two great examples of that, which is number one is what happened in Seattle with the 40-yard touchdown, where the safety, for whatever reason, has his eyes in the wrong spot and has kind of turned a little.

Jefferson just realizes it, runs right to space. And then the Naylor touchdown, I'm not really sure where their safety was drifting off to. You're like, no, 18's over the – oh, and that's a touchdown. But the attention drew to him. The safety was too wide and couldn't make up for it. And there's Jalen Naylor deep down the field. And you've just seen this over and over again.

And what you have to me is the perfect intersection of an offensive line that's built to pass block, a head coach who's a mad scientist and receivers who can do every bit of it and a quarterback who can throw every bit of it and a quarterback who can throw every bit of it. Because I don't know. I don't think a 25 yard deep in route over a linebacker and between safeties is all that easy to do, but I see Sam Darnold and something that I was watching JTO Sullivan and his QB school. He talks about getting all the cleats in the ground and you just see him

torque that the big barrel chest of his and let that thing go loose i mean he's this is o'connell playing to the strengths of his quarterback and his quarterback reading it and seeing it and his receivers executing it and what you get there is a high level offense absolutely and you know it goes all the way back to i remember when we started the year and you asked me like what do you think this offense is going to look like? And I think I was the one that was like, I think it's going to be the short passing game, right? Getting the ball out of Sam's hands and going there. And I think a lot of people thought that because we didn't know what Sam Darnold's strengths were, right? We knew what they were coming out of college, but in the NFL, it was kind of all over the map. Like, I don't know what he is. And testament to to Kevin O'Connell of seeing that because I can remember you telling me during training camp like dude it feels like every day it's just deep ball deep ball deep ball deep ball and they're successful it's like he's just launching they're successful I think Kevin saw that during training camp and was like oh baby this is gonna be right in my wheelhouse and man talk about putting strain on

it reminds me a little bit of when Mahomes had Tyreek Hill and everyone was just terrified of them just going over the top and that's how Kelsey had like career years with guys just underneath but yeah the stress and strain that you can put on safeties is is so unique because safeties aren't great cover people like that's why they play safety and not corner right And so if you can kind of get behind those corners and start making those safeties have to flip their hips and choose and go, it's just so hard for them to do. I also was really impressed, Matt, with the ability of Sam Darnold and Kevin O'Connell to adjust and adapt in real time of how to take Justin Jefferson away. Because it was very clear. Green Bay came into this game plan and said, 18 will not beat us, right?

He won't. I don't care what you do. Get in his back pocket, put two guys over him. He is not going to beat us. And your ability to go, oh, okay, let's just find out a way to make everyone else beat you and to adapt on that real time is so hard to do right because you know you have games like your openers are to get 18 the ball right find ways to get them the ball and that's why i think it started a little slow but their ability to go on the sideline okay

here's what they're doing let's look at the ipad here's what they're going to get to okay sam we're changing things here's what we're changing all right nailer here's what you're going to do addison here's what you're going to do ol over hawkinson and then then just to go out and execute it that is so hard to do and that's such a high level iq and high level players that you have going there that for me was the most impressive thing coming out of this game and that's where i'm going if we can do that in the playoffs as we make runs we are going to be dangerous so many things went right on this i feel like I want to spend the whole time just talking about how good that was. It was so good. Right?

Game plan adjustments. Because they even pulled out some short stuff and some screens. And the screen to Cam Akers is just really well executed. And if you have a chance, if you're a psycho who has the all 22 or whatever, just see if you can go find the highlight. When Akers gets the football and he turns up field, number 18 is blocking the heck out of his guy at the goal line. That guy does not move toward cam Akers because Justin Jefferson takes him out. And there's just, that's a position where sometimes you feel like you're running for the love of the game.

You're doing a track meet out there. You're not getting the football for a couple quarters and the effort wanes. We've seen other wide receivers who got traded and then let go in the same season who once had good fantasy stats, but also wouldn't jump on a fumble or wouldn't block someone. And we just see this all the time. And I think that what makes Jefferson special out of all the things, the motor, the hands, of course, all that stuff, the catch that got eliminated, holy cow. But I think the guy's motor is unreal and it's blocking like that. Also a nice detail on that bootleg when

Darnold rolls out. Remember, he completes the nine-yard pass on that final drive. Justin Jefferson and how fast he's moving across the field, it is full speed, all out. I am beating my man to that spot. And then he just comes right in front of his man a little bit, works back to the quarterback just a little bit to create a lane there for Sam Darnold. And you go, you know, maybe we should have thought that that guy would make some quarterbacks pretty good, right? I mean, it was a masterful game from everybody, but I feel like Jefferson's stats don't even begin to tell the story of how good he was in this game.

Absolutely not. And that's what happens sometimes with receivers is, you know, you look at the stats, the box score at the end, or you look at the fantasy production, and you're like, not his best game. But if you actually go look at it from an evaluation of a player standpoint, he was maybe the best player on the entire field, offense, defense, special teams on Green Bay or Minnesota. And it's like you said, it's the detail-oriented way he goes about his business. It's, hey, if I'm supposed to run this dig at 18,

I'm running it at 18. If I'm supposed to get in, I'm outside release, even though this guy has outside leverage, I'm outside releasing here because that means that he's going to flip his hips and the underneath route's going to be there. He never takes the easy way out. He never cuts corners. And when your superstars do that, everyone else on the team elevates to them. Because it's really easy. If you turn on the tape and you see your superstar lagging or whatever, you're like, oh, he's not doing it. But when you're like, man, that dude's getting paid $35 million. He's recognized as one of the best in the business and he can run for the love of the game. Better believe I can run for the love of the game too.

And that's where everyone's game just keeps getting ratcheted and ratcheted and ratcheted. And I mean, it's just, again you you mentioned it i mentioned it that was maybe the most complete offensive game i've ever watched like ever and i i mean that like ever from top to bottom series to series quarter to quarter game plan execution player execution it was just a master class of offense from Kevin O'Connell and the Vikings. And degree of difficulty with who you're playing against. They went into that game with a top five defense. And I remember once upon a time, we would always talk about this. Like, hey, if they face a certain type of defense

with a certain type of players over there, it's going to be a much rougher ride. And the odds go way down to win. Well, it didn't on this day because everything came together like that and Darnold if you thought oh well you know how's he going to deal with the pressure it's a good team and one score wins and all that stuff uh which is why you just have to play the whole season by the way before you start doing the whole one score win thing Kansas City looks looks pretty good. Now, sometimes you have to survive stuff in the middle of a season and barely get by. And then we look at the end and go, okay, where your wins bogus or real. And this was very real when it came, especially to the yardage differential and so forth. as well, because through three quarters, Jordan Love has, I believe, 59 yards passing.

And Jonathan Grenard, eight pressures, moving him up to second in the NFL, two behind Miles Garrett. What's Miles Garrett get paid? Miles Garrett, he is one of those people that I saw in person in Cleveland at those joint practices and screamed. Like I just, ah, like I've never seen anything like that in my whole life. And that's the company that Jonathan Grenard is keeping for this year. Blake Cashman, one of his best games, if not his best game of the year, maybe San Francisco early in the season.

He was a dominant player. They, they just were on point at pressuring the quarterback, confusing the quarterback. And all of a sudden in Belichickian fashion, they're playing man out there. Like Brian Flores was just like, what do they not see coming? Well, let's just play some man and see what happens. And Jordan love seemed very confused by that. But how do you kind of deal with, all right, they destroyed them through the first three quarters with, oh yeah, when they really needed a big stop there,

Jordan Love scored two touchdowns in about four minutes. Yeah, that you wanted to, I mean, I think I texted you the halftime. I was like, just end this, right? Just murder them, gain all the momentum going in. I didn't love the way we finished that game. And it is slightly worrisome because you talk about those one score games if you don't have a three possession lead and a quarterback gets hot in the fourth and you can't stop him if you're sitting at a three-point lead or a seven-point lead that can flip on its

head very very quickly when it all matters for the marbles but i do think like you said finding ways to survive those type of things is really important right finding way just to get the last stop or just to get one more turnover or whatever it is you know it's really important that they grow through those type of things another guy that i thought had a really good game was harrison phillips you know i thought he did a really nice job against josh myers who's one of very good very talented center they tried running up the middle with jacobs and you know a team that up the middle with Jacobs and, you know, a team that has feasted on the big play, you know, and he's there

and it's a tackle for three or four. It's not huge tackle for losses, but a nose guard that can eat space like that and go up there is doing great stuff. And again, just great team defense all the way around. But the ability to finish games is going to be really important as we go down the stretch here and not feel like we have the boot on the neck and just let up a little bit. And I didn't see going into the prevent defense because I hate that.

And I didn't really see that from Flores either. It just was guys started making plays. And it's going to happen. They make a lot of money too. It's the National Football League. But I would love for us to just continue to find ways to put when we have teams down, cut them at the throat, be with it move on um also ivan pace gosh he's such a good blitzer i mean it changes the whole dynamic of this defense when you have a linebacker that can consistently win in blitzing when it's one-on-one with a running back i mean first of all manual

milson completely whiffed on one and here comes Ivan Pace screaming through, but man, you put that stuff on tape. Quarterbacks get really nervous and they start trying to find ways to flip protections and put guys elsewhere. The addition of him back in there is it looks

like a whole new defense at times. Oh, I mean, they've rarely had Pace Jr. and Cashman together when they have they I don't remember a game where they've played poorly on defense when they've had both of them and shout out to Josh Metellus for playing linebacker at 200. What does a guy weigh?

How much weight do you lose during a season? Because if a guy's listed at two 15, he's probably 200 at this point, two Oh seven on a good day, you know, after breakfast. Right. Right.

I mean, you can see it just even in how much they have to put on weight wise muscle wise everything by the end of the season don't exactly look like their same beefy selves from training camp and i was thinking about that for dallas turner just in how like he's gonna have to have an nfl off season and then we're gonna see him i think be able to push a tackle back as opposed to kind of play in this role that he's doing now. But Metellus stepping into that spot was excellent for them, but it's not the same. It's not this Wolverine pinball that they just send flying into the backfield and it impacts the way that offenses have to play. So let's kick this

forward. Now, Vikings and detroit lions what is your confidence level go with the meter we've been using the meter since 2020 on the show in the biggest moment we're going to our best play which is the meter your confidence on the meter that the minnesota vikings could beat the detroit lions'm going orange, right? It's not quite in the red because that Detroit offense is amazing. It's really hard to stop even with the loss of Montgomery, right? They have Laporta, Amaranth, St. Brown, Jameson Williams has been freaky good for them. But I watched San Francisco carve that defense up. I watched Brock Purdy carve that defense up, and I'm sitting there going, this is what a team that has struggled on offense a lot this year

against really high-level opponents, they better hope that Detroit can score 40-plus because I feel extremely confident about our ability to go out and score a lot on this Detroit defense. I also feel really confident in our defense to get three or four stops, right? Three or four punts, right? Or, hey, they get down in the high red and we find a way to get a sack or get a negative play. And now they're kicking a field goal instead of kicking a, um, going for a touchdown or, Hey, it's fourth and three and they go for it. And we find a way to get a stop because they're going to do that. I give the nod to the Vikings here just off they're the more complete

team right now Detroit is in a track meet mentality of we have to outscore everyone whereas the Vikings I feel like they can control to dictate the tempo of how they want to play offense and rely on their defense when it comes to it of finding ways to get a stop when they really want it and i expressed at the beginning of the season when we were doing all the projections some skepticism over aaron glenn's defense now i know they've lost everybody but they still play the same stuff and kevin o'connell knows what they play and he's really good when he knows what the other team is doing. I saw them just playing a lot of man yesterday against San Francisco and Kyle Shanahan's torch and that. And if Brock Purdy hadn't had a, whatever his elbow happened slash just throwing some balloons in the air, maybe their kicker makes a couple. And you might've been talking

about a different team and a different game. And the Vikings are in a much better position health-wise and vibe-wise on offense than San Francisco. That's just losing guys left to right. They don't have their all-world left tackle, wide receiver. Deebo Samuel's unhappy. Like, it's just a typical the wheels came off a season and everybody's ticked type of situation. Well, that's the opposite of where the Vikings are at. I texted you. They need some 20 play drives, though, because I'm watching that offense going.

I know Flores' defense is good. I know that he's going to throw something different at them than he ever has before, which will be interesting to find out what that is. But they just have weapons on weapons on weapons, and Jared Goff has never been thrown off by this defense, not since he got embarrassed with the Rams in 2020 against Brian Flores. He seems to have taken that personally because every time they face them, it doesn't matter if it's Donatello or Zimmer or now Brian Flores

throwing the kitchen sink. The guy knows how to manage what's being thrown at him. I don't think there's too many quarterbacks, maybe no quarterback better in the league at diagnosing everything in front of him and knowing where to go with the football. I'm gonna make a crazy comparison, but I think it's accurate.

I think Jared Goff's playing like Tom Brady right now. I think that his decision-making, his lack of turnovers, his lack of sacks, his accuracy with the football and the way he's distributing it without trying to do too much. And when you look at the stats, it's a, it's a Tom Brady like season. Yeah. It's not a million throws deep down the field. It's just thousand cuts, thousand cuts. Vikings have to stay on the field because if you get a three and out, I mean, you might be talking about a touchdown from Detroit because I just don't think it's going to be that easy to stop them, especially in their house.

Yeah, I agree. And the nod with the Jared Goff comparison to Tom Brady, I think is actually very, very accurate, right? Because it's not one of those things where you're super looking at him like, wow, he's going to run and he's going to escape and he's Jane Daniels, he's Lamar Jackson. But when you look at the body of work, again, going back from week one to where he is now and the things that people have said about him and the whole bit, he is maybe the most consistent quarterback in the NFL right now, besides maybe Josh Allen. Josh might be a little bit more consistent, but when you look and watch him week in and week out,

which we've done because we're football junkies and we love watching good football, you're watching him going, nothing rattles this dude, and he can diagnose a defense as good as anyone. And when you get a blitz happy defense, he always seems to know where to go with the football. And that has been kind of the Achilles heel of the Brian Flores defense is guys like Stafford, guys like Goff, the veteran type guys that have seen a lot of different football

always seem to have a little bit of an advantage because they know blitz here ball here blitz their ball out here okay no blitz now let the route combinations come they never really seem to be on their heels the way that you get a quarterback back on their heels is by getting pressure to them well how do you have one of the best offensive lines in football with penne sewell taylor decker and you know know, Graham Glasgow, Frank Ragnow, and those dudes that are just phenomenal up front, you pair the combination of really good offensive line with a really good quarterback like that. That's why you're looking at one of the most prolific offenses in NFL history. I think what it really comes down to

ends up being the stuff that we can't control when we're trying to preview the game where we're like, well, what's going to happen with this matchup and that matchup in the scheme. But a lot of times it's, do you force a fumble somewhere? Does Jonathan Grenard had a great game against Detroit last time. And he did force a fumble that I believe Detroit ended up picking up late in that game, but he had a really good game against Detroit. And I think that that's one of their edges there. Can you get them in some third down and longs? And someone has to just make a special play. Someone has to jump in front of a ball and tip it in the air and get an

interception because otherwise you're going to see it moving up and down the field. And I actually think, and this is no criticism of David Montgomery, who has destroyed the Vikings in years past. Jameer Gibbs is better. More Jameer Gibbs is actually more dangerous. And what you said about Jamison Williams, he's finally becoming, because he isn't gambling

in his app in the hotel room or whatever, he is finally becoming the receiver that they thought he was going to be. So there's a lot to work with over there. But as far as the Vikings offense goes, my question there is, can Kevin O'Connell play in a way where they control the football? Because I think they've done it a lot better over the last few weeks, the short passing game, getting a few screens going. I loved the play where they put Addison in the backfield.

Aaron Jones is an outside wide receiver. And the Packers were like, you ever see like a dog meme where they're like, what, what's going on? I, what are they? Who's that? And then Aaron Jones is wide open over the middle of the field for a first down. I think they do have to do that. I think they have to run the ball pretty well in this game. I know that's every game you want to run the ball well, but this is one of those.

Aaron Jones was special last year down the stretch. They really need special out of Aaron Jones in this game. I'm going to go slightly into the orange color. My Gatorade here. It's like a little bit into the orange, but really close down the middle because they have home field advantage and they're just very good. They're both teams are phenomenal, phenomenal football teams. Let me ask you another question.

It's kind of the question of the week here. How different is it for you? Win versus loss, their chance to go to the Superbowl? Completely different. I think that the winner of this game goes to the Superbowl because you talk about home field advantage for both of these teams. It's fantastic, right? I've played in Detroit. I've played in U.S. Bank. They are both extremely hard places to play. Both teams play very well on their home turf.

And just the bye week. The bye week is so important when you get to this point in the season to just take a deep breath, regroup, get some nicks and bruises, feel good about yourself, not put yourself in a place where you have a team that's been playing playoff mentality football to sneak their way into the playoffs coming to your place. I really do feel like the winner of this game is the one who's going to end up being the NFC champion. I kind of do, too.

I mean, it feels like, man, it almost it's like, wait, am I being overdramatic? No, I don't think that I am. It doesn't become impossible because you can go to Tampa Bay or it looks like. So the Rams, this is a little update here. The Rams are going to rest their starters and that has an impact. If they lose, then the Vikings can go play against the Rams. If I have that wrong, somebody in the comment section, correct me. But I think that's right. That if Seattle wins the game, the Vikings, if they don't win against Detroit could end up going out and playing against the Rams, which is the last place you really want to go versus potentially Atlanta, which would be

the best matchup or Tampa Bay. I would take a little bit over somebody who has a ring and someone who has an argument for maybe the best coach in the league still with the job that Sean McVay did with that Los Angeles Rams team. But here's where I want to take the show though. Jeremiah. Yes. You have two coaches who are elite in this game at postgame speeches and at motivational speeches. People say that whatever you think of Sunday O'Connell on Saturday night,

it's even, even through the roof, right? In comparison. And we know Dan campbell just almost just breaks into bloody tears at every time he speaks right so here's what i want us to do you and i have been doing this show together since 2020 we've not had something like this 2022 was a lot of fun but they kind of backed into the playoffs and we didn't have a lot of confidence

in that it was against the giants yeah This is the division and all this stuff. It's the marquee game. It's Sunday night football. I want us to give each other motivational podcaster speeches, okay? Okay. All right. So I'm going to start off. Do it.

And you can think of what you want to say here, but here's my speech. Jeremiah, you've been there for me since day one. And I mean that. I didn't even have money to pay you the first year but you know what you were there and you were bringing expertise and heart and energy and love to see it and hate to see it you are my god i believe in you and if there is one former player that i would want on this show to preview the super bowl the national football league it's you and it's only you so

let's go out there and when we go into this game and we got to break it down next week and we go to the playoffs you are going to have the best freaking podcast that you have ever had because that's what you do as a goat of this game thank you jeremiah i eff love you. I can't wait to do this. Let's go. Getting me fired up. My neck hairs are standing up. Oh, Matthew. Matthew. Blacked out there.

Blacked out there. Football. This is going to be hard to do without using expletives. Okay. Matthew, I want you to rewind. I want you to think about when you left and you went and started Purple Insider and you decided, now I'm going to do this and I'm going to go on my own. Who believed in you?

Look around this room. Who believed in you? I believed in you. We all believed in you, Matthew. And look where you're at now. You're covering the 14-2 Minnesota Vikings going to Detroit to win the division, to win the first seed. Matthew, this is everything that you dreamed about when you went out and said, this is going to be my show. This is going to be my stamp

on it. Everything that I want to do, I'm going to do it. And you've made it. And now the moment is there for you. It's sitting right in front of you, Matthew. No one can take it, but you, you're the only one that can take it. And guess what? Everyone here, I believe in you, the. No one can take it, but you, you're the only one that can take it. And guess what? Everyone here. I believe in you. The people that you've surrounded yourself, they believe in you go do it for them. Play for the name on the back of the Jersey, Matthew, not the front. You play for the name on the back because you're the one that fought it. You're the one that rose to the top of the charts. You did everything that you've ever been asked to do. Go enjoy the moment. Don't make too much of it and just have fun doing it for four quarters,

Matthew, for four quarters. Break it down. Let's get out of it. All right, let's go. Woo. 14 and two. Make it 15 and two on three. One, two, three, 15 and two on three. One, two, three, 15 and two.

Woo. Come on, then. I wanted to use so many bad words in that. Oh, my gosh. I wanted to use so many bad words, but I didn't. But I didn't. It's good work. I don't think we could go anywhere from here other than to say, I can't wait.

You've played in games like this, though. Oh, it's so much fun. When you're in the building, and I've only been upstairs, but there's something different, man. This is why we do this, though, for sure. This is why I and I tweeted this to last night. It's like, this is why I kept doing this. Could try to get another job. Could go work somewhere else. I wanted to keep covering this and see this through

to be at places like this and of course the only way we're here is the incredible support of vikings fans so shout them out as well as kevin o'connell often notes them at us bank stadium but yep this is why we love the game man i can't wait it's going to be incredible it's everything you dream of as a fan it's everything you dream of as a fan. It's everything you dream of as a player. Sunday night football, Chris Collinsworth, PFF rankings, right? The whole bit. It is the pinnacle of NFL football.

And we're going to get to see it week 18, Sunday night. And it's our team. It's our freaking team. It's not another team where we're excited to watch a matchup of oh man look at this is gonna be such a fun matchup we're in it we're in it we've covered it we've lived through the dark days we've read through it all and here we are on the other side i can't wait it's gonna be such a fun game i get so nervous before these games and i do nothing i just sit up there and watch and write but that's how it goes when you got this kind of energy. Jeremiah, truly, I meant every word though. I appreciate you. I can't wait for this. Can't wait to break it down and then go into the playoffs with you every single week. So thank you

very much. And thank you to everybody for watching slash listening and foot freaking ball football.