Purple Insider - a Minnesota Vikings and NFL podcast - Jeremiah Sirles thinks the Vikings can beat the Bills if Josh Allen is out

Episode Date: November 9, 2022

Matthew Coller and former Viking Jeremiah Sirles go over what they saw on tape between the Vikings and Commanders. They look at why the interior of the offensive line struggled so much and how Christian Darrisaw has become a superstar. Plus with reports Josh Allen could miss Sunday's game, how does that even the playing field between the Bills and Vikings?  -- For more of Matthew's Vikings coverage, head to purpleinsider.substack.com For bonus discussions, interview clips, and more videos, check out our YouTube channel! Interact with us on Twitter! @Purple_Insider Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Hello and welcome to another episode of Purple Insider. Another Tuesday morning Left Guard with Jeremiah Searles. I have decided to wear my Goldie hat because I like Goldie. And you know what? Nebraska also maybe had some problems against Goldie. So what's going on, Jeremiah? How are you? You know, I actually went to the game on Saturday and then I got home. And I'm not kidding you, I got violently ill. Like, I threw up all night.

And I don't necessarily think it was from the Huskers, but I might just be allergic to Husker football with how bad it is now. You know, so it might just be one of those things where you're just, I just don't care anymore, and my body just rejects the Huskers. But my goodness, I mean, they held the Gophers to like 36 yards in the first half, and then we scored 10 points. And everyone in the stands was like, ooh, I mean, they held the Gophers to like 36 yards in the first half.

And then we scored 10 points. And everyone in the stands was like, ooh, I think we might do it. And I was literally looking around like, 10 points ain't going to do it, boys. Like, 10 points ain't going to beat this team. And then eventually Mo Ibrahim comes out. They figure their lives out in the second half. And it's the same old song and dance. Nebraska loses a one-score game because of self-inflicted errors. Yeah, the offenses in that game were basically two teams

violently throwing up on each other anyway, for the most part, except for Mo Ibrahim, who's basically been the entire offense for the Gophers for several years now. He actually turns 38 next week, so congratulations to him on that. It's remarkable, though, how bad that game was but you know really i mean it's more about the gophers mascot it is one of the great mascots i mean no matter how much your rivalry with the opposing school you have to admit goldie is elite he is i will say i like goldie i think goldie's a solid he's a top five mascot in the big 10 big halloween guy as well

that was in the recent past but anyway uh we've got some vikies talk about it's a seven to one football team my friend and uh you know i think that sometimes people can easily mistake me marveling at the things that have gone their way to be seven and one with that being a criticism like you've the games, you don't have to give them back, but you do have to improve on some things in order to beat good teams that are coming up. Even if case Keenum starts, which appears will be the case and we'll get into that will be the case. I haven't done that in a while. Yeah. That was a hard one to avoid for a while. Well, you've,

but you obviously a former teammate of case Keenum. So we will get into that um as the they look to play him potentially in buffalo but we got to start with the offensive line because you have some wonderful play on the offensive line just magical at the tackles and some very disturbing play on the interior where would you like to begin how about with the how about the left guard? I mean, I think, I think it's, it's a fitting start for Tuesday morning left guard to start with the left

guard that I don't even know if he laced his cleats up on Sunday. You know, I don't, he might as well have not. I believe, I think you told me he got a 0.0 PFF grade. I mean, that's basically like you didn't even go out there. Like you just kind of stood on the sideline and they played with four offensive linemen and at the time i didn't think kirk was going to survive that game i thought kirk was literally going to be left in washington planted in into the turf like permanently right when they build a when they take down the stadium it's like a rock like here lies kirk um but uh well what what went wrong I mean because now

from my eye with Ezra Cleveland he has a pretty serious weakness and that is reading any type of stunt twist blitz if anyone basically doesn't run themselves directly into him which actually he's fine when that happens uh then that person is getting after the quarterback and it's interesting because the game started out with ed ingram giving up a pressure and i tweeted like uh something really might need to be done here but then the left guard position allowed nine pressures which if you're not facing aaron donald and you allow nine pressures that is a rarity in fact there are whole seasons worth of guard play and i'm not being hyperbolic where if a guy has an all pro guard season, he'll allow nine pressures in a whole in a whole year.

How in the world did this happen to a guy that seemed like he was making some progress? You know, you're exactly right. The stunt game really got him in trouble. And that's basically it's a couple of things. One is it's your set. You know, when you have a team that is a stunt heavy team, and I didn't study Washington enough coming into this game knowing are they going to stunt heavy team or it could have been something like they saw it on tape that, hey, he turns his shoulders or he's on different levels than Darasaw or whatever it is. And so they attack that. And the thing was, is he didn't use his hands to flatten the penetrator. So whenever there's a stunt game, game there's two things you have to flatten the penetrator and then the guy who passes the stun off has to get depth so if you're the left guard and they run this called a te right tackle end and the tackle runs a hard three technique which is the outside shoulder of the guard

and sprints up the b gap in between the guard and the tackle and is basically trying to pick the tackle so that the end can loop around back in the a gap as a guard you have to identify that this is not a normal rush from this guy he's not coming straight up the field or making a move he is going at an angle to try and do something else and that's a recognition thing and that's the thing you have to see on tape that's the thing that you have to just recognize in real time very quickly and for for him, he didn't seem to recognize it super quickly. And so he wasn't flattening the penetrator. He was allowing the penetrator to get penetration, which then splits the guard and the tackle.

And that puts the tackle in a hard place where even if he takes a good set, this dude's on his shoulder. So he can't slide back in to pass it off, which then means the guard can't just pass him to no one, which then allows a looper to come flying up the A-gap completely scot-free, which we saw multiple times on Sunday is right up the gut. And we all know what flusters Kirk cousins right up the gut pressure, you know, so that was a game plan that

they had coming in. And Ezra Cleveland has to be able to notice that in real time and say, okay, I got to flatten this and throw my body and throw my hands and get him in, push him and push him off and pass him to Darasol and then settle back and get back with depth so that you can then mirror the guy coming around. If you get pushed and you try and go flat, he's going to be around, you know, and he just, he never put it all together. And then I think what happened is that happened early. And then all of a sudden he started thinking and he started trying to maybe, is it a twist? Is it not a twist? And then every rush was beating him. It didn't matter if it was a pass stunt it didn't matter if it was just a straight inside move like he just got caught thinking when you think you stink you play slow and you don't

react and you know I think that happened to him early in the game and he was just never mentally able to recover and get back to being what he's been for majority of the year which is a serviceable offensive lineman I'm right and we do have to give jonathan allen a lot of credit one of yeah one one of the werewolves of the nfl but even when you're playing someone who's good nine pressures and a zero grade like these these are guys that you try to survive and you know you're going to give up a couple of pressures but you can't allow them to completely take over the game which is what washington's defensive line did i also think that this really speaks to why offensive linemen love it so much when you run the ball successfully, because if it's third down and three, you can't run stunts

and twists and games and blitzes and everything else. But if it's third and seven, you sure can. And it seemed like Washington took advantage all day. And I think that Kevin O'Connell, all of us cringe when a team runs on second and 10. Like, well, that's not going to work. But it was almost like he had to dial up a couple of them because all the second and 10s, they were just running everything at him and getting into the backfield every time. And I think that with Ezra Cleveland, it's probably we're at the point to call it with him as in this is who he's going to be. Where one week you could be like, oh, yeah, we had a good week. But if the next week he plays somebody really dominant, there's just not going to be an easy answer.

Because this transition that he went through from tackle to right guard to left guard, he's just never had a natural feel for that position in the same way that someone who was a guard their entire life would have yeah you know and i think another piece as far as him is what he does this week is going to be really important you know he put a lot of bad stuff on tape and now you're going against the buffalo bills defense that is very good up front you know and so they're going to study this tape and they're immediately going to test him on what he failed at last week which what we just talked about the test the the te's the et's flattening the penetrators you know he's going to see that on the first third down there's no doubt in my mind first third and long they're going to run a stun at him and see if he's fixed

the errors you know so it's going to be a big week for him and we talk about development we talk about how players get better each and every year and each and every week you know this is a step for him of this was probably the first game this year that i'll say he got whipped you know i think that like he's had tough games this year but this was the first game where it was i mean drew samia oh my gosh against the colts to like you know that's the kind of game it was and how he bounces back i'm gonna be really interested in this week because if he bounces back and he comes back and has that serviceable decent game again next week then I will be comfortable saying okay yeah he is who he is but he's still developing into becoming a pro you know like I don't know if he's going to be Wyatt Teller and all of a sudden put it all together and be an all-pro like Cleveland

but I think that if he can take a jump this week and say okay I got my teeth kicked in last week it's the NFL that's a uh, that's a first all team, all pro probably, you know, and okay. Learn from my mistakes, come back, get better grind, and then fix my mistakes and play better next week. I'm not ready to just write him off as a failure. You know, I think that'll still be time to tell now, if this rattles him to the point, if he comes out next week and he's still playing slow and he's still playing nervous and playing, he's thinking too much over analyzing that's when you really start to raise red flags and that's when chris cooper's

really gonna have to look himself in the mirror and go are we gonna be able to continue this win streak against a tough four games against four really good defensive lines coming up with ezra cleveland at left guard which is crazy to think about just last week we were saying well you got to move at ingram and so now you're like holy crap what do i do which guard do i live with which guard do i try and throw chris reed in possibly uh so looking at the updated statistics on both of our guards here the dead last guard in the nfl and pressures allowed by five from second worst is ed ingram, who we'll get to. And in third place now, Ezra Cleveland. So the Vikings, in very traditional, almost vintage fashion, have two of the worst guards in the NFL in pass protection. It's kind of unbelievable. I know that Kirk Cousins does cause some of this by being who

he is, but this has not really been the case this year. This has been those has been those guys. I think that cousins has done a phenomenal job of getting the ball out of his hands, not letting these pressures ruin him, having a good rate of pressure versus taking sacks, which is something that he's actually improved in recent years. And when we talk about why he's averaging six and a half yards per attempt, this is definitely one of the reasons is that he knows that that pressure is coming up the middle. It is, I guess we are getting to the point where if this costs them a game, you have to have that conversation of like, do you bench someone? Ezra Cleveland is down to a 40 grade for the season, but Ed Ingram, not to be outdone, is at a 30 grade. Now, I think that I would believe in Ezra Cleveland based on his history a little bit more, but Chris Reed, even Ole Udo was much better than these two guys have been so far this year. Austin Schlottman has played before in the league. Blake Brandel is a guy who they've developed over a couple of years. We've always had the, yes, it actually can get worse

theory, but when you are last and third to last in the entire league and pressure is allowed, I don't know that it can get worse at the guard position based on the guys they have. I mean, this is a hard decision because when you win games, you don't want to change anything, but you also look at this and go,

this is about as, as poor as it can be. You're exactly right though. As Chris Cooper and KOC and those guys look, they go, man, are we willing to roll the dice on on other players? And I think the only player that I would feel really comfortable putting in there is Chris Reid at either position, you know, because of his proven track record.

He started a ton of games in the NFL, like some of the other guys, like even only started a lot of games. But at the same time, you're like, I've seen what he can do. Like, and we haven't seen a big enough sample size of him to really know, is he going to go out there and actually perform better when the lights are on for the first time this year in an extended starting role? You know, at least you kind of know what you're getting with Ed and Ezra, and it's not good, but you can kind of maybe scheme ways to try and protect them a little bit, slide the protection to the main big rusher, give double team help, and you're still going to leave a guy on an island. It's the NFL. You have to buck up at one point and do it,

but to just pull a guy again, if you pull your rookie, you're playing with fire with his, with his confidence and all that. But I think the better idea is like, Hey, if Ezra goes out and starts just having the meltdown in the first quarter again, I think that's when you probably say, okay, Hey, we let you come out and see if you tried to fix what you had to fix. You didn't. We're going to put this other guy in. We're not writing you off, right? It's very complicated of how you approach these things because you never want to shatter a guy that you may need later on in the season. I mean, all of a sudden you put Chris Reed in and then knock on wood, but Ed Ingram gets hurt. And then you have to put a guy right back in that you just berated and told him he's awful. Like that's not good for anyone. It's a complicated balance of

like, Hey, you're just not up to performance. It's a performance based job. It's the NFL. We're going to put this other guy in, he's going to get a chance, but we're still going to need you this season. We're only halfway through the year. Like you can't just go in the tank. And that's kind of where I'm sure the balance and the conversations are happening in the room and upstairs of just trying to find the right way to not give up on guys, but also just always looking to improve your football team. The Buffalo Bills, by the way, graded as the second best pass rush in the entire NFL. Yeah, they're really by the pro football focus, folks. So, yeah, I mean, that's this is going to be another.

And then guess what? Dallas is number one and they face dallas in two weeks so i mean these yeah these challenges are not going to stop the new york jets uh even though sheldon rankins is hurt they have quinn and williams is playing like a monster robert sala is doing an amazing job there with their defensive line i mean this is not this does not get easier no clements is playing at a high level, too, for an older. I mean, the Jets are sneaky, very, very good up front. Right. I think it's been a huge part of their success. So, I mean, this is, yeah, this is time where it's like this week, if it starts going sideways, that they have to consider making some changes.

And, hey, Garrett Bradbury, you're not off the hook. He's third in the league in pressures allowed. So, the interior has just been a trouble for them. And on the outsides though, I mean, Christian Darisaw just week after week continues to dominate and watching the game back. It's like,

I, I mean, I can't find a weakness in this man's game as a run blocker. He has become a Mac truck. And this is what I wondered about when you have the thing about Derrissa. I wonder why he dropped in the draft. Maybe you have some insight into that because the Vikings got a complete steal here, almost in the same way with Justin Jefferson, a franchise left tackle, a franchise receiver without having to draft at the absolute top. And there were things on tape as a young player for him in college where he kind of looked like

he was just moseying. Like he wasn't really like, Oh yeah. You know, what are the sand in the underpants or whatever the sayings are, whatever, you know, like he didn't have this violent nature to him, but you and I talked about this at the combine with a couple other guys.

It was like these tackles. Sometimes the best guys are like that. They're kind of like chill dudes that don't get rattled by anything. And I think there are saws chill nature may have made people think like I don't know maybe he just doesn't have that violence to him but I promise you he has some violence to him he has been one of the best players in the entire league at that position and he did it again on Sunday yeah you know the thing I love about him is he's so smooth in his movements you know I think that sometimes can be looked at as laziness but when you're just super efficient in your movement, I mean, you don't have to strain and like make it on tape, like head back running because you're getting there with such ease. And that just goes to his athleticism. And I have no idea why he fell so far in the draft. I remember when we drafted him, I texted right away. I was like, that's a phenomenal pick. Like that was my number one. Couldn't be more excited about pick for them. And then everyone, he got hurt and dinged.

And last year we were like, oh man, is this going to work out? But I mean, to have gone through what he's gone through, the injuries, the getting thrown into the fire last year, struggling a little bit, and then seeing what he's done with a full off season, with a new staff, with a new system and coming out and just fully dominating as a second year player is fantastic to watch. And you're right. He is, I think because of the success that he's had in the pass protection game,

which is so natural to him, he's been able to put a point of emphasis in his run game, you know, because he's so athletic and long and he can stay in front of people. Like I'm sure Chris Cooper and them said, all right, let's put an emphasis on your footwork. Let's put an emphasis on your hand placement. And you're so strong and powerful if you just do it with correct technique it does look effortless so that you just throw people around or you get on the edge and you put your hands on a corner and eject him two or three yards you know it's just becoming and it's all clicking for him at the right time and I do think that we need to give Brian O'Neill some credit for this you know I think Brian O'Neill has probably helped mentor him along the way and helped guide him because, you know, Brian was a guy that was in a very similar position, got thrown in right away, was kind of figuring out as he went.

And he just had that same kind of development. I think because of him looking up to Brian and Brian probably helping him along the way of avoiding some of the pitfalls that maybe Brian had, avoiding some of the issues that Brian had, and also having a coach that played. I think people really underestimate the importance of that. You know, I'm not saying that every great coach has to play the position, but when you have a coach that has put his hand in the dirt and had to do it between the white lines, and you can just talk ball with him of things that you use scheme-wise, technique things, and how you change things up, that can just help with development of a player skyrocket. And so with those two guys, and between Chris Cooper and with Brian O'Neill developing him and helping him,

you're just seeing a guy that is young and hungry and just excited to grow, just taking full advantage of every opportunity put in front of him. Folks, I want to say thank you to all of you who have given Liquid Death a try and sent me your tweets about it. Very cool of you guys to support the sponsors that support this show. I've actually gone to splitting my time between Diet Soda and Liquid Death's sparkling lime, but they also have Mountain Water as well. But it really says something if I've put the Diet Soda aside. And if you haven't tried Liquid Death because of its name and the fact that it looks like a tall boy beer in the water aisle. Well, it got its name because they're trying to bring death to plastic. Liquid Death comes in aluminum cans, which is easier to recycle because they can be recycled for profits

unlike plastic. So Liquid Death gives 10% of its profits to help get rid of plastic. Also, the fact that it looks like a beer is just kind of funny. We still have construction workers at the house and it looks like those guys are pounding beers while using chainsaws. Maybe that freaks out the neighbors, but it's just liquid death. Anyway, give it a try at your local stores, Hy-Vee, Target, 7-Eleven, or go to liquiddeath.com slash insider to find where you can get it. That's liquid death.com slash insider. Well, I want to give the most credit to me because during training camp classic stay,

stay with me here, but during training camp, here's the thing. This is proof that I've been listening over the years to you and Alex Boone. And I have, I've been trained over, over many seasons of watching the big men play and and learning and understanding what to look for and I was watching training camp and I remember we had this discussion in camp I was like this dude looks unbelievable and and the internet

shared one rep where he lost to Nick Bosa as if like he's the first guy to have that happen it's like oh I don't know about Darisaw this year. Like what he was going against the Darius Smith though, game or day after day after day in camp. And this is where guys can be broken on the offensive line when they go against an Everson Griffin or as a Darius Smith. And he was just calm and he was handling Zedarius. And there were times where Zedarius was dialing it up and he was just,

he was just equalizing against him which is incredibly hard to do as you see one of the best pass rushers in the entire NFL and and I remember getting halfway through and going to the PR being like I need to write about Christian Derrissaw because uh he has really come along and I sat down with him in camp and basically the dude was just happy like he seemed like i mean after last year's camp where he missed the whole camp and everything else he was kind of flustered he just thrown into the fire right away and i thought he handled himself well but he was he was in a totally different mindset when i sat down with him and i was like i think this guy is set for a big year so all of his success due to purple insider that's that's very clear. But I am really impressed by that, though.

When you go through some things early on, and then you face really tough guys in training camp, day after day, 95 degrees, that can wear you down. And the way that he handled it was just so impressive. And I think that that's the part of him that you never know with a rookie. Like, you know he's giant, you know he's athletic, but what's his mentality like? And his is really impressive.

Yeah, and, you know, it still baffles me why he fell so far. But I know, I mean, it still really baffles me why he fell so far. But when you have the intangibles, you have the God-given athletic ability, and you put it together with the hunger and the drive that he has and all the stuff that you saw and that, like, the team has echoed. You know, I think that's important, too. Like, the team has echoed. Yeah, this guy's important too like the team has echoed yeah this guy wants to play he's hungry he's back you know and then you can take it the complete opposite and throw Wyatt Davis in the exact same position right like you can just basically look at the two and say okay what was the difference

because Wyatt was gifted I watched him play in college you know I think it's a mentality shift I think it's a mentality I think he surrounded himself with the right people I think he had the with the right people. I think he had the ability to understand, even though I'm a first round pick, I'm still a rookie and I still am not where I need to be. And he embodied all that. And he's one of the best tackles in the NFL. And I think it also goes to show you, you can win games with championship tackles with average inside play, which is why tackles are so hard to find. And when you find one, you pay them a butt ton of money to keep them around because they're really hard to find. But you can get away with that and have average to below average interior play. But if you just think about it, if we can get just average, and God, tell me I'm not a broken record for three years, just average interior play, this team's limit is, I mean, it's through the roof. We are also two years in a row of you declaring that they would have an average pass protection early in the season.

Whoops. Once a Poland, it's got some tape on them. It has been a problem and they've had to manage it. And that's the thing about this next stretch is that as we try to learn more about the team and who they are, I think we know who they are as far as strengths and weaknesses. But the real question is how you can mitigate those and maximize some of the strengths that you have. And where I thought they didn't do so much was in the running game against Washington to the outsides.

Your best run blockers are to the outsides. Both of your running backs are capable, but Delvin is really good as an outside runner. I mean, outside zone was like his thing. And I thought that they just tried a lot of between the tackles that resulted in him just being wrapped up almost instantly. And this, this is where I think that they've got the run blocking potential to be a consistently good team. But sometimes I think that a coach who's like a lifetime quarterback, offensive coordinator, can just push the pass button a little too happily at times. Or maybe there's the level of detail. You're coming off of Kubiak, who's the all-time level of detail running guy,

that maybe they haven't quite had the same. So it feels like it's been a boom or bust running game. Not a terrible running game, but just boom or bust. And when it was slowed down on Sunday, I thought that really hindered their offense. You know, I think we have to give credit to Washington's defense too. You know, I think they saw the week beforehand and saw the success that we had in the outside running game and how the success of getting to the edges. And I think that they leveraged that, you know, I studied the tape from the TV copy and, you know, the more you look at it, you can see that the ends were a little bit wider.

Those linebackers were pushed out a little bit more to the outside. They weren't packing the middle in. They were spreading guys out and saying, hey, if they try and get to the edge, let's put ourselves in pre-snap position to out-leverage these linemen of being able to climb up on us or put us in a position where that wide receiver has to really come in and dig us out and we like our matchups of our wide receiver versus an outside backer and you know I think that they did a nice job of spreading it out and making the middle look like it was a friendly

running box you know it looked like the inside was friendly to run against the numbers looked good and then we just couldn't get the push you know I think that the reason the inside running game didn't work as well this week was not scheme related. I think it was more to the fact we weren't able to get the push and get into the linebackers as easily as we had the week before. And when you can't do that, now you're looking at it from a run game and you're going, OK, they're leveraged on the outside. It doesn't put us in good angles. It doesn't put us in good numbers. And we got to try and run inside, but we're not able to get the push. We're getting negative yards and now we have to pass, you know? And I think that's

the box that we got put into on Saturday on Sunday was just, you know, we have no choice because it's not working. And even if we stay with it, I don't think it's going to get any better. You know, there's something to be said of like, yeah, we're getting three yards, four yards. Like eventually we'll start to pop this thing, but it wasn't. It was one yard, two yard, minus one yard. Like, those aren't confidence builders. And I think KOC is a guy we talked about it for. It needs confidence in the run game. And when you have a scheme that's not working because of a defense

and you're not getting the push physically up front, you just have to revert back to, well, where's 18? Let's try and get him the football. You know, let's try and let Kirk do his thing. And let's try and find those guys. Where's our new tight end we just got? Let's try and get him the football. You know, let's try and let Kirk do his thing and let's try and find those guys. Where's our new tight end we just got? Let's try and get him involved. You know, and you're trying to just revert back to just do things that work and hope that those things can overcome the run game. But that's not going to work when you have an opposing offense that's going to put up more points than the commanders did. See, I didn't I did not

recognize the leverage issue. And that makes me think that Washington was like, we're not going to let you use those tackles to the outside to dominate in the run game, because that is where a lot of their explosives have come. Those 10 to 12 yards, whatever way teams describe an explosive, some is 10, 15 or running game, passing game is different. But certainly if you're getting off 10 yard runs, that's a huge success for you. And most of them have been to the edges. I think that whatever Washington just did, you're going to see Buffalo try to do a lot of the same stuff. So again, it sort of relies on these interior guys finding a way to get push and be successful in the running game, because we see

how this offense just stagnates when that's not the case. Even when certain guys like TJ Hawkinson are adding more and Jefferson's having a big day, but you can't rely on third down conversions, third down long conversions and 47 yard plays to Jefferson. And that's really what they've had to, to, to rest on in the games that they have not run very successfully. And it just, it feels like every game where you just want to be like, you want to shake them a little bit. Like, hey, like what, what happened on that first drive?

Actually answer this question. Somebody had a really good question and I gave my opinion on it, but I wonder what you think. Is it a offensive coordinator thing or a Kirk thing that they have for years really succeeded on the opening drives. Like they've been great opening drives in Kirk's career, but then stagnated throughout the

game. Cause I think that there might be more of a connection to cousins than the play caller, even though we generally blame the play caller, but that's when defenses make all of their adjustments after they see what you're bringing to the table. But I would love to hear you talk about the opening script versus once you get off that and what that's like yeah you know I think you're seeing more and more teams at college NFL like the opening scripts are great and that's because you know what looks you're going to get you study tendencies you know what they're going to get when you line up in three by one two by two all this stuff like this is because defense's first drives are more of just a feel out anyways you know you're not seeing their super exotics unless you get caught in like a third and 11 or whatever it is.

Like those first couple drives are a defense trying to just feel their way around. OK, what is the offense trying to do? And so, yeah, it's really important that you take advantage of those drives and score because afterwards is when things start to get hard. You know, and so I think it's a combination of both Kirk and both just as the defense shifts and goes into taking away the things that we were doing well, us not having the ability to then immediately counter back. You know, I think that that's what the really good teams is like. You go out and you have the script.

I think, for example, look at Kansas City. They go right down the field against Tennessee. Easy dink and dunk, score. Defense comes out, makes adjustments, and Kansas City tried to shift to the run game, and Tennessee's like, no, no, no, no, no. And that's the other part of it, too, where it's like, okay, Kirk comes down, they're throwing it, they're running.

Okay, let's just take one thing away and see if they have the ability to counter back. I think we've just missed a few pieces, and it's really the interior run game that's the big counter piece of not being able to counter back right away and then we're forcing it into okay i know they're taking this away but now let's see if we can just be better than them at this now it's iron versus iron sharpening each other like it's just going for it and it's just hoping that your guy can go up

and make a play on top of them instead of just being able to scheme it up. I will say though, that as they work their way through this issue of having success early and then going forward, if cousins is willing to throw it up to Justin Jefferson, the way that he did a couple of times, maybe I'm not sure if there were more opportunities for it. If he can get over it, the interception, because that was not his fault. It bounces off a guy. Somebody picks it off, costs you three points at the end. But I liked that throw a lot, and I thought if you do that, eight times out of ten, seven times out of ten, that's going to be more good than bad, if not great.

And that seems to be a way to counter the fact that defenses do have answers for a lot of things they do. And they do have adjustments the way things do, but they don't have an answer to just the Jefferson is covered and we throw it anyway. And that, and that was like, Hey, look at why green Bay is so bad. I'm sure there are other reasons, like maybe Aaron Rogers doing weird things to his body for a long time, but like also Devae Adams, though that's always the thing. Like, oh, the defense is shutting down your running game, Adams.

The defense is doubling Adams. It doesn't matter, more Adams. And I'm not saying I want Kirk to go crazy with back shoulder throws that are impossible for even anybody not named Rodgers, but the throw that he made against Arizona, the touchdown pass, like these are covered throws, and Jefferson could go make those plays. And we're going to talk about case Keenum in a second. I mean, that's how case Keenum won in 2017. These guys are down there somewhere. And I think that that is slowly like penetrating the skull of Kirk cousins that, Hey, wait, I can actually do this. I agree. I completely agree. And, you know, and that's why we're having the success that we're having. And Jefferson is happy,

you know, and it's the receiver, quarterback happy team happy everyone's happy you know we're shirtless on the plane happy but you know i think that when you have the trust in your receiver to go up and get it like like you said i'll take a seven out of ten success rate you know and yeah you might have a pick every now and then but at the same time you just make that defense have to focus on that guy and be like even if he's, like you got to be ready and he's good enough to go do those things. And when you have a special player like that, it just can erase things. We talk about erasers on defense, you know, like Harrison Smith being an eraser and all those dudes, Jefferson's an eraser of good coverage. It's Oh, everyone's covered. I was,

all right, where's 18 and just throw it to him. And you can win a ton of football. We're seven and one because Kirk is trusting his receivers to go make plays. If Kirk doesn't trust those. And it's Kirk of two years ago that if the guy's not open, he's not throwing it, he's tucking it or taking a sack or dirt in it or checking it down to CJ ham. Like we're not seven and one,

but because he has that trust in him and Jefferson have built that chemistry. That's a huge reason why we're seven and one. Receive or that he's trusting. We're not seeing still the trust in, well, Adam Thielen had one, he had one big catch, a couple of targets where he didn't bring it in. But I think that what you really saw was how big TJ Hawkinson can be as he goes forward. And, you know, I want to get to some other things, but I mean,

I think that that really showed in the first game. And it's weird because when i watched back the way cousins played i was like how did they only score this many points it seemed like he played really well in this football game like that's about what you would hope for him but these drives just seemed to sputter and peter out i thought it was one of the better games if not the best game that he had played in the entire season you know i think it was a lot we weren't great on first down you know when you're not great on first down like your quarterback can still play really well but you're just playing from behind the sticks and an eight-yard gain on third and ten does not want any good even if it was a good throw and it was like he was efficient with the ball he put in

good places but when you're living in second and long and third and long it's just hard to look at a game and say you had success as an offense we have to be better on first down all right so uh i grew up in buffalo you played in buffalo in fact after you signed with buffalo i sent you wing advice you did uh and about buffalo we've argued about their pizza before we won't get into that again uh j Josh Allen is probably out of this game. It looks bad. Case Keenum, you were a part of that magic carpet ride all the way to the NFC Championship in 2017 with Case. I mean, I don't even know what the right word is. Is it like irony or coincidence or just like sometimes the universe just glitches and decides it's going to bleep with you all year long.

And you have Teddy and you have Keenum. It really is like there was some weird glitch in the matrix that just set everything up to be perfect. Kirk going back to Washington. And now it looks like Case Keenum and Stefan Diggs versus the Minnesota Vikings. Who would have ever thought it? Your feelings. You know, I'm worried about this game for the Bills and the reason I say that is all the things we just talked about

about the Vikings offense and how they take things away and what we can do you know the Bills offense is strictly built around the pass game like strictly I mean Singletary's there they traded for Hines they got rid of Moss and I don't like the run game for Buffalo at all. And when you have a quarterback that your entire offense is built around, which rightfully so when you have Josh Allen, but when he gets hurt, you don't really, in my opinion, be like, all right, boys, we're a run-heavy team now. Like, I just don't see that for the Buffalo Bills. I haven't seen it all year.

I haven't seen where they can just line up and say, all right, we're going 12 personnel and we're going to run the ball. You know, and when you ask your backup quarterback and I love case and we all love case, but case is not Josh Allen case cannot put the ball and push the ball down the field and do the things that Josh Allen does, especially running the football. I think that's the biggest thing. Josh runs the football so effectively and keeps drives alive with his legs and quarterback powers and called, you know, when you, when you move 90% of your offensive production out of the game, which is what Josh Allen is,

you're asking for trouble, you know, and I'm really concerned about this Buffalo Bills offense because the Vikings defense, though, they haven't been great. They are able to just say, all right, let's see if we can just line up and make you try and run the ball and take away the things that you know you're going to try and do and see if Case and Diggs and Gabe Davis and those dudes can beat us on the back end. And so it's really going to be, I think if I'm KOC, I'm going to be like, all right, secondary, man up, and let's just see what we can do because this Bills offense is going to sputter without Josh Allen. And I thought what we saw last week against a pretty mediocre pass-block blocking unit in Washington was the pocket collapsing on Taylor Heineke.

And he is short. And it was a problem. It was a problem. He got balls batted down left and right. And guess what? Case Keenum and Taylor Heineke are the same exact person. And he is short. I think that against this Bills pass blocking unit, which is actually not

that good. I mean, it doesn't matter when you have Josh Allen because he's a linebacker and he'll just throw people off of a runaway or whatever. But I think you saw it last week that that is a kryptonite for them. And it's so funny, like how everything, when everything rests on that guy everything looks fine until you take that away and then all of a sudden all of the shortcomings are magnified tenfold they also don't really have a number two wide receiver Gabriel Davis is a big play guy down the field but he's not a consistent down-to-down they paid Dawson Knox and as far as I could tell he does not exist I don't know who Dawson Knox is because I haven't seen him in any of these bills games. I think his, his, his most yards for a game this

year is like 40. They don't run the ball. They don't pass block that well. Zedaria Smith and Daniil Hunter are now both in the top 12 in total pressures. And Zedaria Smith is number one, number one in pressures in the NFL. Like he's going to get after Case Keenum in this game. No one's there that's going to stop him. And I feel like Buffalo is just going to have a major struggle at moving the football against this team, even with Stephon Diggs being a mismatch for the Vikings secondary. I think it could look a lot like it looked against Washington,

a team that couldn't really run the ball with their running backs. And then with a quarterback who's undersized, doesn't have a arm I think I think it's this is going to be like a grind fest yeah you know and a big piece too to watch throughout the week here is if Spencer Brown the starting right tackle for the Bills is back or not you know I think Quisenberry started against the Jets and he was not great you know Spencer Brown is a he's a guy that's been dinged up but he's a good tackle and when you're we talked about it when you can win with good tackles well when you're down a starting tackle against a team that wants to throw the ball as much as they do that's a problem and now you enter Daniil Hunter and Darius Smith that's a bigger problem now you're talking about keeping tight ends into chip and you're talking about

keeping running backs into chip which is one more guy that's not in the passing tree you know so there's so many issues if Spencer Brown's back I like him a little bit better of a chance I do think he's a bit of a game changer at tackle but if if he's even at 80%, he's not going to be great. So I think the two DNs have a big day against Buffalo. I think Buffalo really struggles. Now you flip it on the other side, Buffalo's defense, they have the ability to take the football away, you know, and I think Tredavious White's going to be back this week. They're all pro corners coming off IR. So, you know, that's another big thing is how ready is he is he a guy that's been working and ready to go and he's gonna go match jefferson and try and take him away and do the exact same thing as the bills defense or bill or vikings defense

can do against the bills and say all right run it up in the middle let's see what you guys can do against ed oliver and jordan phillips and gregory russo and von miller and uh matt milano and trey admins you know all the guys that are just fantastic on that defensive front, and just say, you know what, we're going to take away Justin Jefferson with Tredavious White and maybe Jordan Poyer's back, and then just see if – I mean, this is crazy to think, but I think this game could be, like you said, a 17-14, 21-17 type of game just based off of the Bills' offense struggling already.

You take away Josh Allen, and then the Vikings Vikings offense going against the best defense in the league and this is one where you have seen what it's like in mid-November to end of season in Buffalo it's not supposed to be nice there it's probably going to be windy and gnarly and everything else and now they're lucky that it's a noon game the night games there are something totally different did you have any night games when you were there because they had one we had one monday night football game okay because they didn't always get all the night games when you were there we were there's something about it in that stadium but still a noon game where the wind is whipping and everything else like maybe it'll get greg joseph back on track

the ball blow back in between the goal posts or something but I mean this one has the makings for like being a slugfest as opposed to I think if Allen was playing we'd be going like hold on to your butts because it's going to be a really rough ride and all of a sudden it looks like you could absolutely shut down Case Keenum and play well on defense. And the Vikings defense also remains largely healthy. And that's what I was going to say is the biggest factor here in this game is actually the injury report for Buffalo. Milano has been banged up. Russo has been banged up. Poyer has been banged up. Like all these great players for them have been hurt.

And if they're not playing, I think that the Vikings can win this game. I'll probably decide later in the week, but it's really, I mean, even if Case is playing, I think there are stronger roster top to bottom, but if they have three, four guys out that are key players for them, then I would definitely pick the Vikings to start eight and one and win the game that we all built this up to. But I think what everyone really wants to know is what your favorite wings were in Buffalo. Where did you go?

Give me a second. They're the honey butter barbecue wings from, gosh, dang it. There's 911 wings. There's Bar Bill. Bar Bill Tavern. Bar Bill Tavern. Bar Bill Tavern, honey butter barbecue, Cajun style, with the homemade blue cheese.

If you ask for ranch up there, they will stab you with a fork in the neck. Like 100%. They do not look kindly upon that. I remember when Tyrod Taylor, they asked about his wing choices and he said that he liked ranch and it was like, well, that guy's not getting an extension.

It is. The thing is that here, here's the problem. The wing is what brings you flavor and the blue cheese smooths it all out. That's what it does. It's you know, I mean, it's like a potato with butter on it. You know, like when you're talking about ranch, it changes the taste of it entirely. Like, why am I even putting anything on the wing if I want to like you put ranch on lettuce to make it taste like something. Okay. You don't want to changing and altering this artistic wing that some great man in the back has created over years.

This is, this is not Minnesota throw some BS in a fryer and send it out to you. And it just says Buffalo sauce on it. I'm so offended when I sit like in a menu just says Buffalo sauce, like what kind there are many what? So anyway, and they just threw and no, no offense to Frank's Red Hot. It's like, it's fine. But like, if you're just like going dupe, dupe, dupe and dumping some Frank's Red Hot

sauce, that's not a real wing. No. So we're very much on the same page with this. So anyway, last question would just be, what do you, what do you think? You think, you think they can do it you think they can win the game i think if josh allen is out they can absolutely win the game the the number one thing is going to be the vikings can't turn the ball over you know i think that because like you said this roster for buffalo is probably a little bit more talented top to

bottom you give case keenum that company a short field they'll be able to make something happen now you make case keenum into them and you flip the field and you keep having our punter having the greatest year of all time that he's having and make Case Keenum and that Buffalo offense go 80, go 75, whatever it has to be. I like the Vikings this game. Now, the Vikings turn the ball over twice, they're going to lose this game. It's that simple.

And that's going to come to keeping Kirk clean, Kirk making good decisions, and relying on the run game. You know, I think the Vikings can absolutely win this game as long as they take care of the football. I think that it really depends on who's playing, but they can. I am worried about the punter being mitigated by the wind, but that's getting a little bit deep in the weeds there. I wonder, did you see that on Twitter where I tweeted about the jugs machine and how you can flip it to left-footed jugs machine? How about that?

I mean, here's the thing. You can't prepare for the swirling wind of Buffalo. You can't. It's one of those things. I can remember standing out there pregame watching the jugs machine and these guys punting, and the ball is just literally doing like figure eights on its way down. And, you know, special teams is going to be big in this game, flipping the field position,

because like I said, don't let Case Keenum have a short field. That's when they can make things happen. And shout out to Steve Christie when he retired, one of the greatest kickers of all time. And that's where he had to kick really, really the one of the underrated great special teamers ever. Anyway, well, you can put on your half Viking half bills jersey, right? Like one of the underrated great special teamers ever. Anyway, well, you can put on your half-Viking, half-Bills jersey, right? Like one of those parents where two kids are playing. I'm sure you have one of those for this Sunday's game. And I really look forward to watching this one back, breaking it down with you next week.

Thanks for all your time, Jeremiah. Absolutely. See you next week.