Purple Insider - a Minnesota Vikings and NFL podcast - Jeremiah Sirles talks about how Josh Dobbs can keep the magic coming for Vikings

Episode Date: November 8, 2023

Former Viking Jeremiah Sirles talks about how he was blown away by what Josh Dobbs was able to do in the Vikings' win over the Falcons and how they keep that rolling into this week versus New Orleans Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Hello and welcome to another episode of Purple Inside. Matthew Collar here, actually inside TCO Performance Center at the moment, just after coordinators finished up talking and Jeremiah Searles with me as well on the road. But you know what? We make this thing happen no matter what. We have proved that over the years. I just want to know from you, Jeremiah, as a former offensive lineman, what would it be like to have a quarterback come into the game who knew basically nothing about the offense that he hadn't learned that week and did not know your name and then play with him and win a football game? What would that be like? I couldn't imagine.

I literally was watching that happen going how how is this even possible right i mean all the way from have you even heard this guy's cadence like do you even know how he's gonna call things in the huddle like do you know what he's gonna check to is he gonna be able to come up and flip a protection like everything in your mind would just be going like i don't i don't know how this is gonna work i don't know understand but, understand, but I'm just going to know, Hey, at least we're going to have to go on silent cadence. And I'm just going to watch that ball. And Bradbury, you do your little head, Bob and whoever's calling the plays. We'll just try and read his lips and hope that it's not gibberish coming out of it.

And I mean, just complete what could have been dysfunction, right? That could have so easily. And it almost did. I mean, it's the way when, when he first went in there, I was was going up by like this is exactly kind of how what I expected this to be this is not going to be pretty this is going to be horrific and the way that they were all able to rally together rally around him and give him the best chance to win that football game for them speaks a huge testament to the other 10 guys that are on that field at any given time with him on the offense and also to KOC.

And we talked about on the show last week, this was going to be a huge test of how is KOC going to be able to respond? How is he going to be able to be a coach, a leader, all those things? And he checked so many boxes for me, watching the way that he handled that situation last week. But as a player, I'm still a little bit in awe, and I can't wait to ask one of those guys at one point in time, like, so what was it actually like like from like a player's perspective what was actually going through your brain when you saw him back there warming up taking snaps from Garrett for the first time ever. play where the ball ended up on the ground. And I think there was maybe one false start, but all things considered, that's pretty impressive to come out of that game. That's like a normal amount of miscues when it comes to the snap and everything else.

Can you explain the cadence element? Because it's been brought up a couple of times that are five different cadences that they had never heard him call before. And there was the video that I think care posted of like him on the sideline with the offensive lineman all standing around like trying to listen for what exactly his cadence sounds like what is what does that what does that mean like to have to practice the cadence and how does that work yeah so i mean i think everyone assumes like well it's just on one right like well yes but the tempo of the cadence is what makes it difficult from quarterback to quarterback you know the easiest example is cam newton right why did he what he

done right like there's a there's a timing to that that as an offensive line you get used to the rhythm of your quarterback's cadence that you can get a jump off the ball you can get a feel of like okay i finally have to backside cut off and i need to jump this snap i know that when i hear the the of him coming out that i can just go and run but when you get a new quarterback in there you're kind of hesitant you're a little hesitant like okay is it wide 80 wide 80 hut or is there a pause somewhere in there is there is an emphasis on the on a word he's going to use and a really really big one is the double counts. What does the double count sound like? What is the pause between, if it's on the hard two,

why did A.Y. say, hut, hut? What is the pause in there? Is he going to really pause? Is it going to be a short pause? There's so many of those things that go into that too, and also a lot of it with the game that KOC has and the way this offense is, there's multiple play called. So if he's going to have to check to something,

what is the cadence like where he starts his cadence and then in the middle of it stops and comes up and then checks to a new play? Right? A wide 80, wide 80. Hey, let's go to X 22 or whatever it might be. And you're like, you just kind of hold in there because you're expecting the next cadence to come. But you just don't have any feel for that at all when you have a new quarterback in there

and so much it was almost a blessing that we were on the road and i know that's a weird thing to say but the ability to use the silent cadence where all five guys are used to the bradbury head bob is really good because that would have been at home and you're trying to go off all verbal cadence. I think it would have actually been a lot harder for Dobbs because also Dobbs doesn't have to focus on the cadence when he's in the shotgun. Now he just has to go, okay, I'm ready. I think I know what's happening. Leg kick, ball come, right? He doesn't have to worry about also going through the cadence at times when he was in the shotgun. So that was almost a little bit of a blessing in disguise.

But that's going to be a huge thing to watch this week is how many cadences can he be plugged into. Because KLC is right. You go into a game with about five different cadences verbally. You're on one. You're on two. The hard two. The blue. The yellow.

The trying to draw them off sides. All those different cadences are in for a game plan. And so you have to just get really used. And I wouldn't be surprised if they're eating lunch together going over cadences. They're in meetings together going different cadences are in for a game plan. And so you have to just get really used. And I wouldn't be surprised if they're eating lunch together, going over cadences, they're in meetings together, going over cadences, and just, it's going to be at a point of nauseam this week that the five offensive linemen and Josh Dobbs sit there together and just get used to his verbiage and lingo. Well, yeah, you are good to call back for what we talked about last week about this being a challenge because not only did Kevin O'Connell pass that challenge when it came to,

you know, getting into a headset and communicating and everything else, it sounded like, you know, Josh Dobbs was going to be hearing KOC in his sleep basically because of how much he was talking with them. But the coaching job as a whole, I think from both sides, we have to also include Brian Flores in this, in the way that his defense responded.

I think that over the last year and a half, we've already had a pretty good sense for what kind of coaching staff this was. If you're in Atlanta right now, I think you know what kind of coaching staff that is. When you have, you know, something go completely wrong, it's obvious, but sometimes you need a moment like this to be really sure about a coaching staff. Last year, everything kind of went their way. And yeah, I thought that he galvanized the locker room really well, but they never really went through anything. They had a lot

of veteran players. They had Kendricks, they patrick peterson all that to lose some of those key guys and to still come together like a team and then have your head coach having to basically guide your quarterback while managing the entire game i don't think you can be overly hyperbolic in talking about how impressive it is yeah i mean complete 100 on all cylinders koOC hit on Sunday. And especially because he wasn't preparing for that. You know, that wasn't something that in he didn't go to bed on Saturday night thinking, man, I'm gonna have to walk my quarterback through this entire game. Now, he probably thought I'm gonna have to help this rookie a ton. But he at least knows my wordage.

He knows my playbook. I can at least speak the same language to him. And for him to be able to pivot on a dime and say, okay, this is what I have to do to help my team win while also executing all my other responsibilities as a head coach. You can't speak enough to that because I don't know if people truly understand how hard that is. We see time and time again, head coaches making wrong decisions every single week when they're not hand holding a brand new quarterback as well and i thought the management of that game that he had the way that he handled some of the timeouts the way that he handled some of the game management towards the end of the game too was phenomenal and then to be able to have your quarterback say

okay here's the play call say this to the other 10 guys okay gun trips right key right y pivot x slant z cross and then go okay here's what that means like here's what you need to see okay now that that's out of the way here's what you're looking for addison's gonna run this hawk's gonna run this if it's cover two get it to him if it's cover one coming to bump cuts out right like because at 15 seconds that that mic is dead. And so then at that point, you're just putting as much trust as you can. And the streamline of communication had to be so excellent and so concise

and detail-oriented in that very short time from 40 seconds to 15 seconds to be able to get everything in is so hard. It's so hard for a normal thing to do. It's so hard for a normal offense to operate like that, alone find a way and i even look to my wife as we were watching the game at the end of the game two minute right and i go well he doesn't know any of the signals like they're because the two minute drill is so much about signals and pushing out to your to your coach or to your receivers like hey squire out or whatever it is like he has no idea what any of these signals

mean like it's going to be an all hands on deck of everyone on the sidelines is going to have to be signaling to the receivers and KOC is going to be in his headset and making sure the, the offensive lines getting the protection, right. And all of that just goes into a game winning drive is just remarkable. And it's something that needs to continue to be talked about. And I don't know how this next week's going to go,

but to be able to look back at how this week went could be a huge selling point for Josh Dobbs' career in the NFL. Yeah, and we have to talk about him as well. Because with Josh Dobbs, I look back at a couple of games in Arizona, and there were certainly things to like about him. His mobility was at the top of the list. And while we can talk about his rocket science background and everything else and how smart he is, and I have no doubts about that

because I took journalism and that takes almost no effort at all. But when it came to his athletic ability to make the key plays at huge moments, They do not win without him just going completely off script. And there's a discussion there about the mobility of quarterbacks in the NFL and how it makes a difference, even though you don't see it in those passer rating statistics and so forth. But I just thought from his own confidence, like confidence to me is such a massive thing in the NFL, guys feeling confident in themselves and what they could do and to come in to that situation and then to completely screw up the first two drives where you have the football. And yet there was something that kicked in with him when the free rusher came

at him and he was like, no, I got to run. Like I just got to go. And then he's dodging a guy, he's jumping over a guy. And it was almost like just the natural ability took over. And I think that as we go forward, there's this discussion to be had of whether like, was it just one of those freak one-time things that was kind of crazy that they won this game or can they do it week in and week out to make the playoffs? And those plays gave me more confidence in it. I think that Dobbs is still going to have some turnovers because he always has. But if you can escape a free rusher, a linebacker or a cornerback coming right at you, and he's got size and he's also got like a nimbleness to him that they can work on the

rest. They could get people open. They could get the ball to receivers. We'll see if Justin Jefferson is back. But that part of it actually does act as kind of a cheat code for even if he doesn't understand something he's supposed to be seeing. Yeah, it's an escape route. It's an escape route that Kirk Cousins doesn't have. It's an escape route that a lot of the true pocket passing quarterbacks just don't have. And it's why you're seeing when Cincinnati was awful early this year because Joe Burrow couldn't escape and couldn't create. And now you're seeing him call quarterback draws and move and go, and that's going to bring a total different element to this offense that Josh Dobbs can bring. On the flip side of that, though, it also is going to change how defenses attack the Vikings offense. Forever and always, you knew if I blitzed the Vikings, Kirk Cousins is going to be standing on that spot right there, race to the spot. Well, now it's going to be a little different of he's not going

to start on that spot, but we have to maybe stay in our lanes a little bit so that he's not taken off like my homes does, where he's not going to streak down the sideline with four, four speed, but he's going to get 12 or 13. If it's man coverage, deep man routes, and he's just going to escape out the middle of the pocket. And for him to have that athletic ability, escape ability, really is why he was able to have so much success this game. Because when you can go out there and run and make guys miss, you're absolutely right. It builds to a guy's confidence. It builds to his swagger, to his moxie. And guys are starting to pat him on the head. And he's starting to feel himself a little bit. And starting the confidence like, yeah, I can make that throw. I'm the guy right and every quarterback has to have that humble arrogance

to him they have to have that razor thin margin that they walk between that humbleness and that arrogance of i am the best right if i'm out on this field i am the best i am one of 32 individuals in the entire world that can quarterback an nfl football team and if you can have that and still be able to pull yourself back at times that's the greats those are the dudes that can quarterback an NFL football team. And if you can have that and still be able to pull yourself back at times, that's the greats. Those are the dudes that can make it great. And I'm not saying Josh Dobbs is great, but what he did on Sunday was a great performance

because he walked that line extremely well. His teammates rallied around him, and he found a way to win a football game on the road in the NFL, which is extremely difficult to do. I think what it says about Josh Dobbs, yeah, what you're talking about with his mentality and how he could go out there and sort of have the calling it arrogant sounds wrong just because it's like not, it's usually a negative connotation, but there's a throw that he

makes that should have been caught by Tristan Jackson. Who's like wide receiver six or something. And he drops back. He's got a free rusher and he's staring him right down and he fires that ball. It with anticipation should have been a touchdown, but I think you had just seen KJ Osborne go down and was like, I don't know about that. Uh, this is going to get me hurt, but that type of throw to come in and make, I thought was as impressive as the running game. And that kind of leads to the next question here, the running game for Dobbs, the other running game, not so impressive is what do they need to do to support him further? Because I watched back the tape and I watched all the running plays

and I'm surprised my face isn't green right now. I mean, it was horrible. And I know that the Atlanta Falcons have a good run defense. And I know that they're going to load up when it's a backup quarterback and they're going to be thinking, all right, you're running on first and second down and maybe third down because your guy doesn't even know the playbook. They're aware of that, but this has been a season long trend when you watch it. What am I supposed to be looking for here? Because I feel like it's always something different. It's like on one play, Madison runs right into the back of his guy on another play it's like somebody misses a block there was a few by Bradbury in this game where I thought you know you got to have that one and you don't

have anybody who can really make someone miss now Cam Akers is out for the season like is there anything that could be done here or is it just going to be ugly I think it's just going to be ugly you know I think it's one of those things at this point in the year if you haven't really figured it out i don't think it's all sudden just going to click now that doesn't mean we have to abandon it and we can't just abandon the run game we're not we're not the buffalo bills we're just like all right josh allen figure it out right like we're done trying this whole we're going to run the football thing we just throw it we're fine right we can't put that pressure on Dobbs. We have to continue to try and find ways to run the football. I thought some of the things we did last week of

Powell on the end of rounds and some of those things and creating what are like run plays with the receiver screens or quick slants or RPOs with a mobile quarterback. Now you can install the run pass options like what Jalen Hurts runs up the Eagles because Josh Dobbs can run. He can now make that a true run pass option with also the element of a quarterback run in it. So I think KOC is going to install some of that stuff this week because when you're struggling to run the football, you have to scheme guys open.

You have to scheme run plays open. When you're struggling to say, line it up, we're running either inside zone or this lob toss that we like to run, and it's man-on-man, macho-to-macho, you go beat those guys. We just haven't done that on a consistent basis this year. So now you go into the run game room and you say, all right, we have a running quarterback that can move in mobility. We're down to just Madison.

We lost Akers. We have a really good tight end in TJ Hawkinson. Let's start scheming up some of these RPOs and put some stress on these linebackers so they can't just tee off and run downhill, right? If they want to tee off and run downhill, let's have an answer with Hawkinson with a hook curl, or let's have an answer with Addison on a quick slant shallow across the way. If they want to crash and bail hard, tell Dobbs to put his foot in the ground and go get five or six and slide.

Those type of things are all things you can scheme against a defense, but that also is going to change that the defense is going to pick up on that and it's going to start just becoming a chess match. And when you try and scheme things open all the time, if a defense figures it out mid-game, it's really hard to then go back to, well, we'll just start pounding it up the middle again

when that hasn't worked. So it's going to be a mess. It's going to be kind of an alphabet soup, if you say, of how we run the football. It's going to be all over the place. But I think KOC and this offense understands they just have to keep trying to find ways to get some positive runs in there. But we're never going to be a team that's going to run the ball 25 to 30 times a game. It's just not how KOC in his DNA is built either. Folks, I hope you've enjoyed listening to us talk about prize picks this year, but if you've missed it, here's how it works. You go to prizepicks.com, and it is simple.

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about our picks and also not expensive either. You can turn $10 into 250 by nailing just a couple of picks. So go to prizepicks.com slash purple, the code purple daily fantasy sports made easy do you think is it that they should have regrets over the running back choice because madison did give them reason to believe in the past that he could be a pretty good running back i think what we're seeing now is that he's probably either an outside zone guy or not or nothing um because i thought he was very good in gary kubiak and kevin stefanski's outside zone but when it comes to making reads on pullers and things like that i don't know it just seems like he just wants to go forward and slams into people uh but you know they went into this season with just him and ty chandler kenny wong who gets

hurt they go out and get cam acres. He comes in, has some good moments, but was not a difference maker. But then there's also the scheme element. Like Kevin O'Connell is a passing scheme guy, former quarterback. He's in his sleep, drawn up passing plays. But when it comes to the run, it sort of feels like an obligation. And I, you know, it's not that I never see anything that I think is schemed up well there are there were opportunities and yards left out there but I also don't see this like cohesive this is the Vikings run scheme this is what you're gonna get and you're not gonna like it that's how it was with Stefanski I felt like it was like they're gonna run this style and everybody knows it down to a tee. I feel like it's it's sort of like, well, let's let's try this one.

Now that didn't work. What about this one? No, no. OK, I don't know. Pass. I mean, that's what it feels like to me. But that's a less trained eye than yours. You're you're 100 percent correct.

You know, I couldn't you tell me today. Hey, gun to your head. What's the identity of the Vikings run scheme? No clue. No clue. I couldn't put a T on it of we're a pin-pull team, we're a gap scheme, we're an outside zone, we're an inside run. It's a little bit of everything because nothing works. And when it's the Addo saying, you know,

jack of all trades, master of none, you can, the good running teams in the NFL have a bread and butter scheme that they know they can go to at any time, any defense and get positive yards on it. And we just aren't that. And I don't know if that's because we don't practice it. Well, I'm sure we practice run game, but when you are an offensive minded pass at first head coach, majority of your practice time, which is limited, goes towards pass plays, goes towards team pass,

goes towards protections, goes towards everything else, and then the run game is almost an afterthought. And you can do that when you have Kirk Cousins, when that is your whole offense and your pivotal point. Now you have to shift. You say, Josh Dobbs, yes, we can throw it. Do we want him throwing it 40 times a game? Probably not. Not initially, right? shift you say josh dobbs yes we can throw it do we want him throwing it 40 times a game probably not not initially right so we have to find ways to create in the running game and that's going to

be a point of emphasis this week and going forward but with the madison question yeah we probably have a little buyer's remorse in alexander madison right now i think everyone would agree with that but the only thing i think we could have done differently is draft one but that's that's also kind of a crap shoot as well as well do we don't want to draft one high because that's not what good teams do and we have some good depth pieces that we thought and chandler and he's just not turned out and so we get cam acres but the only other option is really continue to tie ourselves to Dalvin Cook, which that looks like that was a good move to let him leave. I'm not going to say that Dalvin Cook fixed this as his run game

because I don't think he does. Seeing what he's done in New York and seeing what Brees Hall's done, you can tell there's a clear difference between Brees Hall and Dalvin Cook. So I don't think if everyone's saying, well, if we had Cook, everything would be fine, that's probably not the right choice either. But I do think this shows that Madison got his opportunity to be the guy, hasn't worked, and we're going to have to go back to the drawing board for the running back position for 2024.

Right. Yeah, you're probably right that there's no answer, but I will say I would like to see Ty Chandler more. I think that what they don't buy into is his ability to pass block, and if you can't trust him to pass block, and the other team knows you can't trust him to pass block and the other team knows you can't trust him to pass block then he's in the game he's getting the ball and then everyone knows he's getting the ball and then like round and round we go however he does run a 4-3-8-40 so that's pretty fast there has to be some way to mix that in right and you know with acres i understood because acres is pretty quick and he's also got a toughness element to him and two or three times a game he does something just awesome like him laying out

the defensive tackle that was unreal for a running back to just be like no full speed defensive tackle i'm gonna plow you i've mentioned this before and i feel terrible for cam acres because i feel like he really fit in here like that guy is as yoked as any dude and i'm like not that surprised that he knocked a defensive tackle over like that but those plays are now gone as well so now it's really on one guy or them finding a way to use ty chandler which i think once again goes on to the coaching if there's things that he can't do well you got to figure out a way to work around it uh i want to talk about the defensive side and i want to talk about the big picture of this each week i think starting in training camp and then we had a little dip of it when they didn't play very well and then it's come

back up in recent is recent weeks it's been better and better from brian flores uh really impressed from training camp how much the offense was struggling against the defense. You kind of tell like there's something going on here, but what I see from the players galvanizing and you can speak to this as someone who's been in a locker room and had been a part of a great football team with a great defense. There's stuff you watch on tape where you're like, these guys are buying this and they really like each other. You know, like just the reactions, just the confidence, like there's so much there brian flores seems to have instilled and what i love about this defense and i can't say it enough everybody plays everybody who's got a jersey is out there it's like it's like my junior high baseball team where they'd be like all right we

got to make sure everybody gets in the game so tim and you go play uh left field or whatever that's how like there's theo jackson there's tj smith tj smith's active huh okay all right kairos tango's running down a screen pass what is going on here when when i this is what i want to know how much can coaching elevate what's already there because this is very much a sum of the parts is much greater than or wait the whole is much greater than the sum of the parts situation on this defense. Yeah, the thing that is incredible to me is every single person, in my opinion, besides maybe like Harrison Smith and Neil Hunter, are overperforming. Right? That very rarely happens in the NFL. Usually you kind of are who you are, and there's not a lot of hiding from over talent on the other side. And I think of a guy like Bullard, right? Bullard is a

guy for me that early in the year, we watched him against the Eagles just get mashed, right? I mean, just mashed over and over again. Harrison Phillips mashed over and over again. And now all of a sudden it's like this light bulb went off or this switch got flipped where they're creating havoc and they're penetrating and they're moving and they're holding their own on double teams. And that has to speak towards coaching and also confidence in their abilities that somehow Flores has been able to tap into every single one of the guys that he puts out there to give them overconfidence to go out there like you can do this right you may not be the guy that benches 800 pounds and squats 600 and you're going to be a bowling ball hard to move but i believe in you to go out and do this and on the flip side the player looking at flores going yeah yeah i can't right and like god and like running out there and that just speaks to a leadership quality that Flores has. It speaks to everyone playing for each other.

And it's contagious, I think, in a way where you're seeing other guys overperform. And you're like, I want to be like that guy. I want to get my shot. I'm going to get my shot. I want to make sure I make the most out of my opportunity. And everyone just finding ways to contribute. But all of it goes back to trusting the scheme of Brian Flores. Trusting to play within the scheme so many times when guys go rogue and think and that was kind of the deal with chase young right

you heard a couple people like well he wasn't really a team defense guy right this is a team defense where everyone understands maybe we won't be as matched physically with the people across us yes we are nfl players they're nfl players sure but we may not be as matched physically with the people across us. Yes, we are NFL players. They're NFL players, sure. But we may not be as physically talented. But if our scheme is better than them, we win. If we scheme it right and all of us are in our gap and everyone does their job, we win. And that's what you're seeing from this defense is people trusting Brian Flores' scheme, somehow finding a way to continue to overperform each week in and week out. And when you do that, you put yourself in a great position. And overall first down has been the best down for the Vikings. They have been tremendous

on first down and making the offense and second and long and keeping them behind the sticks, which allows us to have a good third down. But overall their first down defense has been what I've been most impressed with. And, and Flores on first down has been often using these five-man fronts, which can get burned at times in the middle of the field. But if you cause confusion with what you're doing on the backend, which he seems to throw a lot of different things, leads the league in drop eight, which is kind of funny because we don't think of that with him. If you're leading the league in blitzing and leading the league in drop eight you're not doing a lot of normal stuff in between uh which which which is really interesting and and when you compare it and it's hard not to to what we saw last year from ed donatel it was like

will you ever do anything different than this same thing over and over and gosh we saw that in green bay when the vikings lit them up it's like these vic fangio wannabes it's great if you're vic fangio but if you're not it seems hard to repeat um and florist goes the exact opposite way with many different looks it also feels to me like a basketball team where you're like all right you go stand in the corner shoot threes you're good off the dribble so you do that you're good at passing you're a three and d you're uh you know you you get the rebounds udonis haslam go stand underneath the basket just get rebounds it's the same kind of thing where it's like all right jonathan bullard the only thing you're good at is stuff in gaps so stuff gaps my guy and the only thing you know josh mattel is you're good at a lot of things so we're

gonna have you do a lot of things you're over there you're over there you're over there i mean harrison smith looks like he's having a hell of a time too. I mean, in a good way, like he looks like on tape to me, that guy is having a lot of fun playing football. I see the same thing from Daniel Hunter. He was a monster in this game. It cannot be overstated. Josh Dobbs gets the W actually on pro football reference.

Jaron Hall gets the W, which needs to be corrected. Not kidding. that's that yeah but but if you were giving out like defensive lineman wins daniel hunter stuffed so many runs and so many big situations in that game i just think it ties all back in and uh you know kind of says a lot about what the coach has been able to do to find spots for all these guys there also is though when find spots for all of these guys. There also is though, when it comes to all of this, we have to take it in this direction as well. It was a backup quarterback.

It's one of the worst coach teams in the league. In my opinion, before that, they also faced a backup level quarterback with Jordan love. Bryce young. Doesn't know what he's doing. Uh, Bay gent happened.

Like there is, there is a lot of this as well that was mixed in with san francisco but brock purdy was averaging nine yards per pass attempts before he uh you know through the interceptions at the end all of this the big question is with dobbs with the defense will this continue to last is the question here i think with the schedule we have it's a yes and no you know when we're playing lesser opponents i think the answer is yes we will be tested like we were against san fran when we played detroit and when we play cincinnati and when we play these teams that have high caliber quarterbacks and high caliber offenses you know you look at our their schedule

and you're going well then kind of a low level offense, low high power offense, right? It's going to be it's going to be a feast or famine thing. And the definition of a great team is consistency. And a good team is less consistent. A bad team is horribly consistent, right? They do it every three plays. And so what I want to see from this Vikings defense is you've done it consistently now week in and week out. Now when the level of competition changes in which you're going against at the quarterback level, does that change how you guys play? Does that mean that he's making that throw that Taylor Heineke can't make or doesn't trust himself to make? Or when you're playing against Jamar Chase and Tee Higgins and Boyd and Joe Mixon and Joe Burrow, can you be as aggressive? And can that talent match that we talked about about overperforming, can you consistently do that week in or week out

or is it eventually going to come up and catch up with us? And I think it's probably more along the lines of it's eventually going to come and catch up with us when you start playing more consistent teams. The good news is we've made it through the meat grinder of our schedule. The meat grinder is over. The early part of the year, we had Kirk Cousins.

Now we talked about that middle eight kind of game thing was going to be brutal, and you're kind of going back in the back end here where you're looking at games like, yeah, we have three games in my opinion, the two Detroit games and the Bengal game, are the three games that are like my antennas are up. The rest of them, I look on paper, we should win. On paper, we should win. And those other games could be a coin flip based on how that goes but i think because of the confidence we built through

this stretch in this run we have a chance to win all those games so here's the thing that i'm concerned about is when you have to exhaust so much effort that at some point the wheels give out. So think about, uh, and, uh, I am an amateur jogger. And, uh, if I was trying to race someone who was a real jogger, then I might be able to keep up with them for a little while, but I would be given everything I had. And by the middle of that race with somebody who's actually good at it, my legs would just give out. And the thing is that like, if you're, let's say, you know, Kansas city, for example, has had a lot of adversity through their season to be at seven and two, but they've gone through a lot and their offense isn't what it's supposed to be and everything else. I'd go play

in Germany. Didn't play that like sweetest game, but they have Patrick Mahomes. And that is the one like that. Even if he's playing worse mahomes and that is the one like that even if he's playing worse than he normally plays you know that you are going to be able to survive through those things and the time where i saw it obviously the most was minneapolis miracle to nfc championship after that game it was kind of like this where there was just like this i can't believe we did it. Like all this attention for it. They had to give every single thing they had. And then the next week it wasn't there. I you've been through it before. I I've covered it before. It feels like

it's coming, but how, how do you stave that off? Like, how do you make it? Maybe you lose this week, but you don't make it like a three game losing streak to bad teams because you just ran out of gas a lot of it is in your preparation how you prepare throughout the week and KOC is going to have to get a bead on this team starting tomorrow right today's the off day so starting on Wednesday when his team walks in there and you walk into that first team meeting on Monday on Wednesday morning KOC is going to have to get a beat of where is the emotional tank of this team and how do I either bring them down a little bit so that they're not burning on high and they're going to run out by Sunday or how do I slowly start the process of building them up from where they're at right now if they're too low.

And that is built through how practice is scheduled, how the week is scheduled with meetings, kind of what are we putting an emphasis on. And that all just goes into allowing a player to just play because it is easy for us as players to get caught up in the emotion of a high win or even a bad loss. And it then also falls back onto the very few veterans that are left on this team of trying to coach some of the younger guys through this. Hey, I know you're feeling great. I know things are good right now, but guess what? None of that matters anymore. Nothing that mattered on Sunday. No one cares at all about it anymore. No one's going to give us a pat on the back because we found a way to win with a backup quarterback. It's a new week and teaching guys and instilling the culture into that's going

to be really important or else you are setting yourself up for a letdown. And if you do have a letdown, everything I just mentioned comes even more important the following week of bouncing guys back and bringing guys back. And there is no exact science to it, and everyone is susceptible to it at every level of the league from the Eagles all the way down to the Carolina Panthers. You are susceptible to this of an emotional letdown and it's just a matter of being able to identify it i think is the first thing and not just think oh we'll just get through it right i think it's like okay they'll

be fine they'll figure it out as a team they'll get through it no you got to identify this kind of stuff and talk about it so everyone's on the same page with it and then once you can identify it you can start attacking the problem areas in which they are to try and overcome that emotional letdown. This show is sponsored by BetterHelp. Folks, if you're struggling with the holiday blues and you're having some trouble getting excited in the same way that other people in your life do about holiday get-togethers, and all of that just sounds stressful to you, then maybe it might be helpful to add something new in your life to help deal with those feelings. That's where therapy could be a bright spot for you. It can help give you the tools to manage stress and help you feel

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Terms apply. Again, create an account, redeem code INSIDER for $20 off your first purchase. Download GameTime today. Last minute tickets, lowest price guaranteed. I think it speaks so much to how much of coaching happens when no one is looking. You can watch a game and I think you can really tell the preparedness of a team, how gelled together they are and how much they're panicking or not panicking and all those things from the outside. But it's only moments

like this where it kind of, we, we really see it right when you're really put in that back against the wall, how are they really coached on a day-to-day basis? And then this week is going to tell us even more. Um, I'm not going to completely to completely, you know, destroy them if they don't win this game, because this is, this is a real uphill battle, but it's just another challenge. And that's what it's like for a head coach. There's just always another challenge there. And to bounce back from this, the emotions of this, and then stay at that level to go beat a team. That's probably, you know, we're, we're talking about detroit and so forth but new orleans is not a trash team like they have a really good defense they have a lot of playmakers on offense

and at least the quarterback who's done stuff before in his career this year uh iffy but uh before we get to love to see it hate to see it where is your bar set now for this team that you have seen them win under these circumstances because two weeks ago we were saying hey trade away some people before you get too high on yourselves and you get too excited now uh well everybody's really excited so uh what do we think i mean we sit here at five and four and i think i put what i say nine at the beginning of the year? I think I still say nine. Maybe closer to eight. I think eight.

But I think we'll have a much clearer picture after this week. Because now we're going to see what is Josh Dobbs off a full week of being the starter. And I'm pretty sure I've talked about it on this show before. But being a guy that runs in there on adrenaline and run-ins in there on just blacking out and finding a way to play is totally different than when you go through the week as being the guy. And this comes from a guy that was a spot starter his whole career. My best football came from off the bench. And that's probably why the reason I was never a true starter in the NFL, you know, and it's a special thing to be a starter in the NFL.

But when you're just coming off the bench and you're running out there and everyone's looking at you like, Hey, we got this. You're the guy. Come on. And you're like, yeah, yeah, I can do it. But when you spend the whole week going, man, okay, I got to study this way. Now I got to be, this is how my practice schedule is completely different. Now everything is different. It really is, is harder thing to do. And so we'll see a lot more of Dobbs and how he handles that this week. The great news is he's been doing it all year. He's been starting all year, which is why we loved the trade and thought the trade was a really good idea because you bring in a starting caliber quarterback

that isn't just been sitting on the bench all year. So he's been in this rhythm. He's been in this routine. And if he can find a way to go out and beat this team, you're looking at a true nine-win season being a very realistic thing. Nine, maybe squeaking out 10 and finding a way to backdoor our way into the playoffs after the horrendous start we had is still a very real thing. And I know some people are listening to that going, yeah, why, why would we do that? We want the quarterback. We want this. We want that. But at the end of the day, you want to win. You want to win. You want to install a winning culture. And if you can bring in a quarterback that can allow you to do that, that's a win in my book.

Yeah, there is always going to be that part, a win. And that's always this team, and that's this team's entire history. But probably gives you more confidence if you can make the playoffs under these circumstances that you can survive just about anything. And, you know, I mean, the Vikings under Mike Zimmer, there's always this kind of thing that I get a little bit uncomfortable with where it's like, Mike Zimmer would have lost this game or lost that game. Like, I don't know, man, Mike Zimmer's teams fought through a hell of a lot, including making the NFC championship with a backup quarterback. But that was one of the things with the defense was so good under Zimmer that I always felt like

anybody who comes in can win this game on the offensive side. They just need enough. It feels that way with Kevin O'Connell in just a different way. Like anybody can come in and be a better version of themselves as a quarterback, which maybe if you're making the playoffs makes you believe more that they can find the next quarterback without having to tank and draft number one. Although in our love to see it, hate to see it. I would like to point out where CJ Stroud was selected and how we now feel about the Houston Texans. Let's just go back a year and talk about how ugly and hideous and awful and pathetic of a franchise and what a joke the Houston Texans were. And all of a sudden, magic. They are on the rise.

I can't believe it. I can't figure out why. Now, of course, it doesn't work for everybody at Carolina, and we'll see where that goes. But love to see it. The next superstar quarterback in the NFL, C.J. Stroud. And what I really like about the guy is he seems to have no emotions to him at all. He was on a college football Saturday show.

Very calm on there. He was he was breaking down like TCO's defensive scheme or whatever. Like he seems to me like he is so fit for the NFL and being an NFL franchise quarterback that this is not even a rookie anymore. This is a true franchise quarterback. Only a few weeks into his career. Love to see that. to see that oh absolutely you know he was going to be my love to see it too the ability for him to lead that game-winning drive just ice in his veins and delivering two absolute dots on those games like that i mean i was watching with my dad in the hospital like are you seeing this and he was like, yeah. Who's that quarterback?

I was like, that's the second quarterback taken in this year's draft. He's out there just throwing dudes around. I love that the Texans, after losing to Sean Watson the way that they did, you were wondering were they ever going to get another caliber type of player like he was when he was there back in that organization. That's always the fear when you let someone like that walk out the door. Are we ever going to get back to that and they nailed it they nailed it and including will anderson they nailed will anderson as well he has been a phenomenal job for them on

defense and so we talked about if you can have draft second and third overall and nail those two picks you're setting yourself up for a ton of success in the future there so hats off to that organization after last year tough start not sure do it to me go ryan i think they're going to go a long ways for that um my love to see it is the bangles are back the bangles are back you know i know that the buffalo is not the buffalo that we're used to seeing, but they just do it every year. They start out terribly. They think everyone's going to write them off. They find a way to flip the,

to flip the script inside the locker room and make it very personal. Now everyone's fully invested. And now they just go out there and look like, yep, they're going to be super bowl contenders again, just like we all thought back in August. And I, the league is better when Joe Burrow and the Bengals are good because it's so fun to talk about that team the talent all over

the defense is playing actually better in my opinion than they have in the last couple years and you start saying Joe's going to continue to get healthier every week Jamar Chase T Higgins all those dudes T Higgins on a contract here so you know he's balling out fun team to watch going to be a very scary team especially because they watch going to be a very scary team especially because they're going to be a wild card team because there's no way they catch the Baltimore Ravens at this point in the year yeah and to see Joe Burrow at 100 and just remind everyone oh yeah oh yeah and you know honestly CJ Stroud reminds me of Joe Burrow quite a bit. I think that they have enough mobility to escape and make plays, but the, the, just the accuracy and the intellect of those two guys, anticipation,

throwing like everything that they have, there's a lot of similarities there. So the AFC has more quarterbacks, which is exactly what the AFC needed. My hate to see it is national television. Oh my God. I mean the New York Jets and Zach Wilson. What did, what did I do? Did I sin? Did I do something wrong? And I am being punished because I enjoy watching football. I did not enjoy watching Zach Wilson for like the fifth time on national TV. So I was like, well, you know what? Me and Al Michaels, we'll get excited for Thursday, right? Cause Al's been really pumped this year. Yes.

The one in seven Panthers versus the two and seven Chicago bears on Thursday night football. Well, we do a live stream folks on YouTube, uh, on Thursday night. So if you have nothing else to do and you're not watching that football game, well, okay, that's totally fine because Sunday night football will be great. I don't even care about Thursday anyway. Sunday night is the Jets and the Raiders. And then Monday night is the Bills and the Broncos. I'd rather be hit by a truck.

Why create the flex rule if we're not going to use it? Right? Like, all three of these games, I don't know if you can flex Thursday night games. I don't think you can. Right? But the other two, you should be able to be like, no, no, no. Flex you right on out of there, stud. You go to that nice noon kickoff on a Sunday.

No one wants to see that. We'll put you on Peacock or something. Like, yeah, I completely agree with you. It's not been a great slate of games for primetime. And then, I mean, the best game, everyone thought the best game this last week was going to be the 8 30 AM kickoff between the dolphins and the Kansas city over in Germany. And I mean, even then it wasn't a great game, but everyone would have much rather seen that game on a Sunday night or Monday night than what was out there. So completely in agreement with you on that front as well

um my hate to see it is the New York Giants you just that team had so much promise so much potential so much hype going into the year paid Daniel Jones you got Saquon back you draft Jalen Hyatt you signed Dexter Lawrence this team like everyone's like are they going to be the ones that knock off Eagles and the NFC East and just to see time after time week after week they have a voodoo doll somewhere that's just getting plucked and prodded and poked and it's just not going well for them at all Daniel Jones now tears his ACL. Tyrod Taylor's got broken ribs. Danny DeVito doesn't know what day of the week it is.

They're a week away from starting Matt Barkley. I honestly think you see Matt Barkley walk out there on Sunday, straight off the couch, number two, going out there and playing for them. And it's just sad to see for Brian Dable, who again was my coach in Buffalo, who I have a lot of respect for. I thought they were primed for a big year and they just have not had anything bounce their way this year. I mean, the offensive line injuries to start the season,

which then in part lead to your quarterback injuries. And then it's just devolved from there into one of the worst seasons for anybody versus expectation. I think probably the worst season of any team because their expectation was probably 10 wins and they end up they're not going to come close. My last hate to see it is the discourse regarding Caleb Williams jumping in the stands and crying. Now, I think that if you're saying, look, as did you see this? You know what I'm talking about? I know exactly what you're I'm curious which way you're going to go with this.

And I hope we're on the same page. I hope here's what I think. Here's what I think. In the NFL, I just watched Josh Josh Dobbs be about the most even, unemotional person and handle incredible adversity with ease. I think it's really hard if you are an emotional roller coaster to handle the NFL. And every time I've seen Caleb Williams lose, he, he acts like it was just the biggest tragedy that's ever happened. And I, I think that that is going to be tough. That doesn't mean like he's so talented that, you know, he'll probably be a top pick and everything else.

It's not going to drop his draft stock or make me say he's a bust or anything else. But I think if you don't say like, Hey, a lot of the best quarterbacks, they fly pretty even and they go through a lot, man. He's going to have to figure that out. He's still young. You know, that doesn't mean it can't change. He can't mature or whatever. But when I see that, I think most pro quarterbacks in that situation get off the bench, they go shake the other guy's hand and they go back in the

locker room. And if they need to have their emotional moment, they're probably going to have it by themselves because they're leading a whole organization for a college kid. I'm much more willing to say, I get it. But if that's how it's going to be in the NFL with those emotional swings, it will be harder for him. Now, if you're saying, oh, he's going to be a bust because he's a wussy. OK, all right. All right. Let's calm down now. Or if you're saying it means nothing, I'd be like, OK, well, but, you know, it may. So that's how I see it. I'd love to know how you see it. Yeah, I'm we're very much

on the same page he is letting his emotions control him and no way shape or form can you operate like that in the national football league in off the field on the field at all if you allow your commotion emotions to control you bad things are going to happen whether that means you go home and you get yourself in trouble because you're making an impulse decision off emotion, or you're trying to force things because you have so much pressure on yourself emotionally on the football field that you're trying to do things that you shouldn't do, throw an interception, reaching the ball out, getting popped out. Those are all things that are emotionally controlled decisions. And to have your emotions on your sleeve isn't a bad thing. but when they're out of control

and sobbing in your mother's arms on national television after a week eight game not the national championship not a conference championship like not one of those type of games or the last time you're ever going to be in a college uniform like those are different type of emotions where yeah that's that's a chapter ending in your life like that's a big emotional moment I cried after my last football game and we won right because I knew like man that's the last time I'm ever going to wear the end on the side of my helmet right those are different than you lost a week eight game against the fifth team in the country like I get it it sucks it hurts but to have that type of emotional response is alarming.

And it also is going to alarm the NFL teams on his response in the press conferences as well. I'm not one to buy into those a lot, you know, but you lose the Utah, you don't have a press conference. And you can say that that was, that was the head coach's deal. We all were like Lincoln Riley said no, and he was respecting that. Sure. Okay. Whatever. coaches deal we all like lincoln riley said no and he was respecting that sure okay whatever but to be standing there hands in your pockets poor body language and someone asks you about it and you're like i just won't go home and cuddle with my dogs it's like okay i i can understand that but like you this is your resume that you're building for the nfl and i agree with you he's

young he's gonna need to surround himself with a lot of good people to help him write this type of stuff. Because if you don't get this stuff on the front end fixed and talked about and identified, it will come back to bite you on the back end because of how stressful the NFL is, the pressure that will be put on you when someone hands you the keys to a billion-dollar organization and says, don't wreck it Like there is a ton of pressure that comes with that. And so I hope he surrounds himself with the right team, the right agent, the right marketing people, the mentors, people reach out to him and just help him understand the OK things to do and the not OK things to do of being a starting quarterback in the NFL, because that is his future. Right. Right now he is in college and also normal people, because I see a lot of projection when people talk about this normal people, you don't lead an NFL organization that's worth $5 billion. It's different. It's just different. You know, people ask me, why does Kirk cousins negotiate for so much money? I don't at my job. And I'm like, look, it's just different. It's not like you work in, uh, in uh you know the the best buy office or whatever

it's just not the same and the same thing goes for for this and when you lead as a quarterback and you saw this from dobbs it trickles down when he doesn't panic and the coach doesn't panic then nobody else panics and and so you see too much of that but the other thing too is at the end of that game he throws like a check down or something when they're down 10 and there's a minute left and like look it's not over I mean it's over but it's college football it's not over he looked to me like he kind of gave up and that's what I see from Justin Fields that worried me is when Justin Fields early in his career he would get down in a game and it'd be going badly he would just give up he'd be like sliding you know five yards early instead of trying to get a first down or throwing the ball

of bounds or whatever you like you never see that you know you only see resolve from the great quarterbacks so it's i mean i think it's an interesting discussion to kind of like peel back the layers of this but i agree like it's something that he has to understand and look nobody understands wanting to go home and be with your dog more than us but it is like i don't know it's hard because it's hard not to sound like a bad person when you're saying it but you have to consider some of the moments where we've seen quarterbacks like jay cutler or donovan mcnabb who are really talented players but we're a little too on the emotional roller coaster side and had some struggles because of it. So I'll be interested to see if the NFL weighs that and talks about that.

Oh, they will. They will, 100%. And I saw the senior bowl guy get crushed for saying that. He's right, though. They're going to talk about it. They're going to talk about it. It's not something you can just brush under the rug when you're trying to make a decision that is going to cost everyone in the organization their jobs or not.

You have to you have to turn over every leaf player on the field, off the field, the makeup of the player. All of that goes into if I'm willing to push all my chips in the middle of the table and say, that's my guy. That's who I'm putting my stamp on. Ask the Carolina Panthers in four years. See if it worked out or not. Right. And there's another guy, which is Drake May, who has been fantastic. So, yeah. Yeah. I think i think you might go number one but anyway now we are a long time from that

and if the vikings keep winning uh we're definitely nowhere near that conversation so i just i just wanted your as a guy who's been in huddle with many quarterbacks who had uh incredible resolve to them um to get perspective. So I appreciate that. Anyway, thanks everybody for watching. Thank you, Jeremiah, for taking the time. And we will do it again next Tuesday. And who knows what we'll be talking about then. So we'll see y'all later. Later.