Purple Insider - a Minnesota Vikings and NFL podcast - Jeremiah Sirles thinks the Vikings can beat the Chiefs

Episode Date: October 4, 2023

Matthew Coller and former Viking Jeremiah Sirles talk about why Dalton Risner hasn't been brought in off the bench yet, whether we can believe in some of the things that were better versus Carolina, why the run game's improvement is so important and why the Vikings have a chance against a more flawed Chiefs team than in the past Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Welcome to another episode of Purple Insider, Matthew Collar here and returning to the show back from his infamous hunting trip that happens every year. And we miss you for a week, which means you don't have to break down what happened against the Los Angeles Chargers. Jeremiah Searles, Tuesday morning left guard. How are you, sir? Oh, it's good to be back. But without fail, Matthew, every time i leave something ridiculous happens like i think i was texting at one point i got service like so give me update like oh buddy i don't i don't have time to give you the update we've traded for cam acres things are going off the rails i'm like we're oh and three i was like all right i'll see you when i get back like i'm just gonna walk back down the hill here i don't i don't need any more updates from the ailing viking nation but hey got one in

the wind column right just need that first right? Just need that first one. You just need that first one. We were really close to being 0-4 because, guess what? We could always be the Bears. You could always be the Bears. So, silver linings, we're not the Bears. We're 1-3 and back on the winning track. 13-3, here we come.

Yeah, okay. You know, the Bears might draft number one and two, which could help them eventually but you know at least for today you could say they're not the bears um but i want to throw this out there and i did a piece on this and i've been thinking about it one and three their win against carolina was one of the least inspiring victories i've ever seen in my entire life. However, I think what you saw was some things that could carry over and be good in the future because Kirk Cousins might not play that bad again all season. I mean, it was just way off in that game. What we've seen from the

majority of Kirk Cousins under Kevin O'Connell is much more comfort than that. I think he got rattled by that interception right off the bat, never really recovered, but still found a way to win the game. And now goes to Kansas City here. You've got to get a win versus Kansas City or San Francisco to keep your season going. But Akers in the mix is good. The offensive line, we'll talk about a whole thing.

But overall, Kirk is not being pressured anywhere as much as he was in the past. It's really just over the right guard in particular. about a whole thing but overall Kirk is not being pressured anywhere as much as he was in the past it's really just over the right guard in particular and the defense had answers including Harrison Smith at the line of scrimmage Marcus Davenport was excellent they had really been missing him I think you can sort of squint and see where this is not a bad football team and actually could be stronger going into Kansas City than they were starting the season. Is that too much to talk about for a 1-3 team?

No, I don't think it is either. I watched a lot of football this weekend. It was the first time I've got to just kind of sit on my couch and watch NFL football all day Sunday. And I watched all across the league, and you're watching these teams that have no weapons on offense and just trying to find anything they can and then you watch the Vikings team specifically on the offensive side

you're like this team is stacked right like and that's not an under that's not a that's not something that's like oh Searles you don't talk about like Jefferson right Hawkinson Kirk's playing very well besides this game right KJ Osborne Mario Addison and now you add Cam Akers in the backfield and you're like we should be winning a lot more football games than we're winning and so I don't think it's a stretch at all to say they kind of found they found a way to win which is what this team was all about a year ago right they didn't look pretty all the time it wasn't great but they found a way to win And that's a huge confidence booster for any club, college, high school, whatever, to scratch out a win.

And winning the NFL is the hardest thing to do. To figure out how to do that and to figure out how to continue to move forward with that is really going to be what dictates how this year goes forward. And you talk about a big game coming up. You have to grow each and every week in how you prepare, how you approach things week and how you prepare how you approach things and how you go about creating a winning culture and with the turnover that this roster did have last

year of losing some really key pieces I think this beginning part of the year they were still trying to figure out how to do that right you lose Eric Kendricks you lose some guys that were core staple guys of when when poop hits the fan who did you look to you look to the guys that aren't there anymore now you look in the middle and it's a undrafted free agent rookie right so there's so many of those things that are behind the scenes going on that you know that the the talent will eventually take over on the field it's just a matter of now plugging the holes that we missed out on last year that we are we missing this year that we don't have last year and finding ways to get back into what the routine and the rhythm of

winning football games is i'm pretty optimistic moving forward that this football team is not going to be uh oh and a or one and eight or a two and seven type of football team there's just too much talent on this squad also uh mario addison was a defensive lineman it is jordan addison however is a promising my brain my brain's still getting back onto track i apologize jordan addison golly retraction but if they did have mario addison playing wide receiver uh maybe we would think less highly of the group of weapons. That would be a very panicked situation. I just heard Margo Edwards called names so many times last night watching the Giants game that it was just brain.

It just stuck in here because I just kept hearing over and over again, Reed, Addison, sack, Reed, Addison, sack. That reminded me of the time that the Vikings sacked Matthew Stafford 10 times in a game i mean it's uh that was ugly but speaking of that so every week no matter what happens there will be quarterback pressures and with every single one that happens and this is not me excusing the right guard and his performance this year then what i get in my twitter feed is this Vikings offensive line, fire Kweisi. He's done nothing.

What are they doing and so forth? And then I pull up the numbers, Jeremiah, and I look, and Kirk Cousins is the seventh least pressured quarterback in the entire NFL. And I'm watching last night, and I was reminded of 2016, sorry, in a lot of ways with Daniel Jones and Sam Bradford, except for Bradford got rid of the ball to Kyle Rudolph and Daniel Jones just got sacked a bunch of times. But there were two backup tackles.

You're bringing in Jake Long, but at times it's like Andre Smith, Matt Khalil. It was a struggle. And TJ Clemmings, of course. It was a struggle. And I just tweeted out last night, I hope you guys realize how good Christian Derrissaw and Brian O'Neill are and how much of an impact that has.

That you never have to worry about Brian Burns. When we go into a game and we're breaking it down, we never talk about the other team's edge rusher unless it's like TJ Watt, level good, because of how good these guys are. And so, yes, there has been some issues, and some of the pressures have turned into turnovers, which makes them way more noticeable. But this is the best offensive line I've covered for the Minnesota Vikings. And they might be adult and rise their way from being pretty darn legit.

I have to agree with, you know, Ezra Cleveland, I thought, has looked much better watching the tape from the last two weeks. Obviously, against the Chargers, it is what it is, but he didn't look bad. And we talk about it all the time. You don't have to be an elite guard. You have to just be a middle-of-the-pack guard when you have two elite tackles.

Because if you know that your edges are set, take your three guys in the middle and just control the depth of the pocket a little bit, and Kirk is a pocket enough passer, he's going to be able to step up and deliver the ball on time. He's going to get to the right reads and do all those things. But I'm with you. You can't sing enough praises about those two guys on the edge.

And when you look across the league, what do all the great teams have? Championship tackles, right? You look at the really good teams the the eagles right lane johnson mali lata you know you look at what the chiefs had before they got rid of them when they won the super bowl last year andrew wiley orlando brown right like they all have very good tackles trent williams over in san fran so when you're mentioning those names brian o'neill and christian darren saw are right up

there in top 10 tackles in the nfl right and so when you have tackle talent like that you have to throw the you throw the football the way you do because you're not scared of the strip sacks right not many strip sacks come from up the middle unless they're free runner blitzers right those are where the strip sacks come but so often you see the dn turning on a short corner raising that hand up and knocking the ball out i don't think that's happened one time this year right i don't think that when derisaw and o'neill are in right i'm saying when those two guys are playing not when the backups are in when those two guys are in i haven't seen some dn come screaming around the corner and you hear throw it as the tackles facing

the quarterback right so no this offensive line as far as pass protection goes has been very good this year compared to even last year and they've taken steps forward they need to get the run game figured out because I don't care if you are the best offensive line of football if you are one-dimensional the defense is going to find a way to get home to you that's just what they do so if we can get the run game going again the introduction of Cam Akers was big this week. Continue going with that. Yeah, Dalton Reisner steps in there.

He gets up to speed. He's an immediate upgrade from Ed Egram. This offensive line, you're looking at top 10, top 12, somewhere in that range, which you can win a lot of football games with that big of an offensive line. Yeah, and when I look at the tackles, I kind of think of what Teron armstead and ryan

ramchak were like for the saints for so long protecting drew breeze and i also think that ezra cleveland has improved and austin schlopman over the last two weeks has done a tremendous job now of course the difference between facing jaylen carter and jordan davis and chargers on the inside is pretty big. But, you know, I think that at least what you have here is an offensive line with a single weakness that you could try to cover up. And I asked Kevin O'Connell about this and he said, like, now you can have a running back give help on the interior, which is pretty unusual. I mean, normally you see the chipping where they're trying to give help to the defensive ends,

but when you can island both of those guys, it's a big advantage. And I think that at times we've seen Kirk Cousins take advantage of the high number of clean pockets, but at other times we haven't. So what's the answer here? I mean, because you mentioned Addison, you mentioned Osborne,

neither one of them are off to a good start. And Hockinson is averaging 8.1 yards per attempt which is or per reception not even per target but per reception that's like what you might expect from Alexander Madison honestly like that is so dink and dunk what is it that needs to happen here for it to come together consistently. And I guess at this point we have to ask, is that possible with Kirk Cousins? Because everything is here, but is it a Kevin O'Connell issue? I got a question this week from somebody of like, is there a play calling, like maybe trying too hard sometimes? Or like, what could it be that is keeping them?

Because when I look at their scoring percentage, expected points added, the metrics that kind of point us in the right direction. You're still talking about a middling offense. I think it's the turnovers. I think that's the biggest thing is when we're turning the ball over, it's killing drives, right? It's killing games.

And through the first four weeks of the season, it's really plagued us. I mean, we drive right down the field, getting ready to go go score we got three points on the board already and we throw pick six right and then Kirk Cousins gets wasted on the sideline right and quarterbacks aren't used to getting hit like that and I think that rattled him the rest of the game right he didn't look the same the rest of the game right and all I could think back to was the the quarterback show of like my ribs like that's all i could think of like he's hurt like he looked like he was not fully operating on all cylinders the rest of that time so i think that plays a factor into it i think the other the factor i mentioned earlier was the run game right like the run game opens up the deep shot

play action passes right when you're just going to drop back and pass every time those dbs they're not really getting caught with their eyes in the backfield because they don't have to worry about run fits right so many of those big explosive passes we've used to seeing kirk cousins over the years have come off those play actions those bootlegs those ability to hold those linebackers for just a second so that hawkinson can sneak behind them or it was rudolph or whoever it is can sneak behind those linebackers. Now that eight yards is more looking like 14 or 15. And so I think a lot of that comes with just our inability to be able to run the football effectively. No one respects it.

So when no one respects it, they're dropping back into coverage. The linebackers are getting deep. They're getting into their drops, and they're taking away the deep shot and giving us the underneath stuff and then rallying and tackling. So all that's going to come back to the ability to be effective on first and second down with the running backs. If you can be effective and then everything loosens back up because if you can be effective, especially early in the game,

you start getting some running games, some big chunk plays early in the game, first quarter, second quarter, then everything starts to open up more in the second half. Haven't really seen that throughout the four weeks here with the Vikings of super effective on the ground, everyone's going going and then taking that shot over the top it just hasn't been there i don't think it's a play calling issue i don't think it's no coordinator issue i just think there's not a lot of complimentary football going on on offense no you're totally right and they finally get the running game going against the chargers to start

the game and they are plowing down the field and then hockinson fumbles and the same thing was starting to happen in a little bit carolina where well they did get a 45 yard penalty that helped but they were running the football pretty effectively and then not continuing to keep drives going the other thing that's happening too is that the opponents are staying on the field for 40 minutes a game and so if you have three drives in the second half it's hard to put up And so if you have three drives in the second half, it's hard to put up fantasy stats when you have three drives in the second half or if you're down 21-10 as they were against the Chargers. And that happens, like you said, via the turnover. The interesting thing for me is, so they're 31st in turnover percentage.

No one's surprised by that. But they were only 20th last year. So I think that there is some risk taking to o'connell's style of offense that comes along with sort of the the whack-a-mole game with kirk cousins where it's like if you put the gas pedal down more more mistakes happen and i know they're not all his there's been some weird fumbles just to jefferson fleeing the ball out of bounds against philadelphia and so forth but that's all you know you know, you get sacks, you get interceptions, you get one offensive lineman beat and the quarterback does not move out of

the pocket. And that's like the sort of, we've gone through this over and over again. And I feel like it's just going to be a staple of who they are, where they are either amazing and breathtaking on offense, or we go, what happened there? But I think that the running game can even that out we've seen that a little bit more over the last two weeks i also think that the reason that ed ingram is still playing is because he's run blocked very well the last two weeks and even if there's mistakes in the passing i i think an offensive line coach might

give more credence to that than I do, and that's always been Dalton Reisner's weakness. But do you have a theory? Because we were given the, we're playing the best five, so I'm not really telling you why Dalton Reisner didn't play the other day, but what's your thought on that? I think Dalton Reisner plays this week because he was with the Broncos.

He knows Chris Jones. He knows how to block Chris Jones. He's played him a lot, and they probably probably were this was probably the game they circled you know i think right before i left for the hunting trip i was like it's really hard for a guy to just come in right away know the lingo know the checks especially with the backup center and just throw them in there be like hey best of luck have fun right like you want to get this guy ramped up because also he hasn't been in training camp he hasn't been in practice like it's not like this guy was traded and brought in from another team and he's battle hardened this dude hasn't played football since last January so it's going to take him a few weeks to knock the rust off and get back into this playing speed and tempo

and I do think even if he does play we're going to see some rust out of him because it's his first live bullets but I think overall you and I've talked about the glaring issue is the right guard. So you put him in there, right guard and say, hey, you know, Chris Jones and welcome back, like playing against one of the best. But we need you to step up and play big against Chris Jones. I think you see Dalton Reisner at right guard this week. Make Little Caesars, the official pizza sponsor of the NFL, part of your game day. Order online during our Pizza Pizza pregame

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Aside from maybe it's just that Ingram was so good in the run game the last couple of weeks. It seemed like O'Connell was pleased that there was a fire lit under them. I think it was because they played two defensive lines that are uninspiring. But, you know, it could be a little a and a little b but I get tired watching training camp from the sideline just you know with my beautiful skin that I'm trying to protect in the shade I imagine that there is where you are prepared for the 17 game season so it would be understandable if Reisner was not ready to go out and play a full workload yeah you know I had an old line coach in Carolina John Matsko old grinder beat you up and he would always tell us like in the dog days of training camp like you're callusing your body men right like when you get beat up when

you're in the weight room and you're ripping your hands open early on when you're first starting to lift and then eventually those things get calloused up and hard and you don't even realize they're there anymore he's like that's what you're doing to your body during training camp. And he's very true. You get so sore after the first week of pads. Everything hurts, your neck, your back, your shoulders, your knees, because your body's like, what is happening? And then eventually that just becomes the norm. And so you talk about a guy that was literally on his couch watching football two weeks ago, and you bring him into a week's practice, which is nowhere near the physicality that a training camp practices, maybe one day in pads, maybe.

And even then, you're not really banging, right? You're stay up and you hear all the normal stuff. It's going to take some time to get yourself into that callous shape. And I think probably asking him to go play 70 snaps probably not ready for that but I maybe rotate him in but I do think you have to get him in this game I think he starts but I do think you might see a rotation of hey two series one series ed or two and two or one and one or whatever it may be just to start working to callous his body the way it needs to be and then if he goes out and performs well,

and it also is kind of an open competition, right? I mean, at that point you're like, Hey, both you guys are playing. So it's an even playing field now, made the best man win and we're going to go with whoever's the best man. Rotational third down guard is the new that's new football. Everybody that's modern football. No longer is it scat backs it's rotational guards but there was a point uh on sunday when the sack was allowed on on cousins well it wasn't a sack it was a pick but it was a whatever it you know and uh i i thought i don't

even care if he knows the playbook this it can't be worse. It can't be worse than this. And Chris Jones, I don't know. Did you ever play against Chris Jones? No. He's a beast. He is an absolute beast. Like, this guy is – Derek Brown is a great player, but he's more of a, like, push-the-pocket guy,

more of a Delvin Tomlinson. This dude is a, like, 15-sack type of – if you let him, you know, destroy you, he's going to ruin your entire game plan. Yeah, and, you know, he's done it watching what the chiefs do they pick who they want him to rush against it doesn't matter if it's the right tackle the left tackle the center of their guard like they are they he's like a he's like a follow corner but he just picks his alignment right he's like oh third and eight and right guard right like i'm gonna line up over you and the thing i like about the Chiefs do too is they don't get cute in their pressure packages

because they don't have to. They know they can get pressure up the middle with Chris Jones. So they usually drop into coverage quite a bit instead of just lighting it off over and over and over again. And that's because you have a winning guy in Chris Jones.

So I expect to see him lined up over at Ingram if he plays most of the game. Now you put Dalton Reisner in there he's probably going to move around a little bit maybe over Schlopman maybe a bad moving back over Ezra Cleveland but he is the star around on the scouting report the game wrecker have to take care of him chipping on the inside whether that means you know we slide to him and we have a tight end that chips on the d-end as the tackle bumps in and then comes back out like you have to game plan around that guy much like you would game plan around an aaron

donald or a grady jarrett like a jeffrey simmons he is that type of player that has the finish ability to finish at the top of the pocket with sacks and not just hits and hurries yeah and so i just had to pull up his pro football reference page because i was like wait i said 15 sacks did he really have 15 sacks oh yeah uh he did he really had 15 sacks so that is a dangerous dangerous man and he has looked totally fine since he's come back he has looked like the superstar that we expected even despite not having the training camp but maybe a little bit different for a guy who could ramp up over the first couple of weeks. I think that's a major problem for them on the defensive side though.

Davenport does change the math here. You're not just going from an all respected DJ one for making a couple of great plays the other day, but you're not just going from a decent rusher to a really good one. Like back in 2017, where it was was b rob who is the backup for everson griffin well that's two very good football players one's better than the other but i mean they're both good this is going from a bottom of the roster type player borderline in the league type player to a guy who was drafted in the first round because he is as like you like to call it a

werewolf type of looking dude and his impact was felt right away i mean i agree with kevin o'connell that if davenport is in there and this chief's offensive line is very human i mean they are they are very beatable as we saw from the jets i don't think this is you're so massively overmatched like you would have felt about the chiefs in the past no not at all i mean you talk about um juwan taylor not juwan is it jonathan taylor the right tackle right juwan taylor jonathan taylor is a little small for tackle he's a running back juwan taylor you know the most penalized tackle in the league you saw it time and time again he holds like crazy and he's very susceptible to the bull rush you know when he has to line up on sides

which they fixed after week one you know and donovan smith coming over from tampa also one of the most heavily penalized tackles in the league gets very grabby so you talk about turning those two guys loose on the edges you have to pick which way you want to slide right which way do you want to slide creed humphrey which way are you going you're going to davenport you're going to deniel hunter like what are we doing here and if we can win on first and second down which i think why the chiefs won that football game last week is because they got isaiah pacheco going right if we can win on first and second down and not allow pacheco edwards a lair and jet to get chunk plays on the ground we have a really good opportunity to get to mahomes and affect him

on the throwing lane the thing that scares me a little bit about Mahomes though, is what he did to the Jets with, if you rush past him, he can't escape and move forward. And his three interior guys are very good. Very, very good, right? You talk about Trey, Creed Humphrey, Joe Tooney, like three very solid interior guys and that's where he always escapes is through the middle very rarely do you see Mahomes circle the defense outside and wide and take off on the edges he knows his tackles are susceptible to issues of running around the edge and so he's very good at feeling that presence stepping up those three guys in the middle and then escaping out so really important that Daniil and Davenport as good as rushers they are they have to be very disciplined rushers as well when playing a guy like mahomes i wanted to

ask you about that jumping off sides thing and uh the alignment and everything because you watch games on a weekly basis and now of course you start looking you can't not see it you can see it from the press box sometimes where i mean lane Lane Johnson does that crazy kick with his right leg. And you're like, that was way before the snap. I mean, sometimes, sometimes I think that was way, way before the snap. What's your feeling on that? And the alignment where it seemed like because it was on national TV, everyone saw it.

And so they were like, oh yeah, he's like lined up as a slot receiver. But people started putting out other pictures of offensive lines and saying, everyone saw it and so they were like oh yeah he's like lined up as a slot receiver but people started putting out other pictures of offensive lines and saying i don't know man is this really like that unique so what what is is this just like a classic case of football doesn't know what its rules are or is he doing something unique it's weird because i feel like whenever i was playing like i was constantly getting warned right because you do you want to live right on that edge of like my headlines kind of breaking his belt line right you stick your neck out a little bit but it seems like it's gotten more and more egregious over the years

and i don't know if it's just because it's one of those things that it is truly a judgment call right it's truly a guy standing on the sideline looking in through multiple receivers through a bunch formation through whatever it is and going is it i can't really tell oh whatever we'll just let it go you know but o-line we're trying to find ways to give ourselves an advantage because like i like we talk about the werewolves are getting freakier they're getting faster like we got to find ways to get back off the ball more and more and so i think we're really flirting on that line of legal not legal but if they don't call it we're going to keep more. And so I think we're really flirting on that line of legal, not legal,

but if they don't call it, we're going to keep doing it. And so I think it's one of those things that I appreciate what those guys on the edges are doing. Cause you have to try, right? You have to try. And if you get called and usually the side judges are pretty good about giving you a warning, like, Hey, 78 scoot up. No, God, I got it. You do it for three, four plays. And then you just start slowly inching yourself back a little bit more. And then they'll give you another warning later on.

But it's interesting to see. It's interesting to watch. And I think it's becoming more of the norm. And until the refs start calling it on a consistent basis, you're going to see more and more guys keep doing it. Yeah, I mean, and that goes for it is incredibly hard in real time, not super epic slow motion, which sometimes I feel like people think the referees have in their brains, but they are actually just people. So timing it out between when Lane Johnson does his kick or when the ball is actually snapped is extremely hard. So if you're a little bit savvy at it and you can time it out pretty good and you know the cadence and everything you can jump but what joan taylor can't help is how often he holds

that that is going to be i think a huge advantage in this game for the vikings with daniel hunter going against him and i don't know if they necessarily should be sending the house though against patrick mahomes because one thing they do have going for him though is there's no Tyree kill and there isn't like a nice possession wide receiver like Juju Smith Schuster for him to work with I think that these young receivers are not doing a great job for Patrick Mahomes but he does have Travis Kelsey and I feel like if you blitz them those two are so much you know beating in the same heart that like he's going to find all the spaces the same way Keenan Allen did when you have these really brilliant players who know their quarterback so well. I think Brian Flores is going to have to change this one up a little bit.

I also think historically if you blitz Mahomes, he is even better than when you don't blitz him, which is kind of weird. Yeah, you roll the dice anytime you want to send pressure to Patrick Mahomes right you know he has the ability to find the holes in the zone find the weakness but to your point lately those haven't been the deep shot kill shots right it used to be you blitz Mahomes who someone's going deep and good luck keeping up with them there isn't that this year it's been kind of death by a thousand paper cuts that last drive that he had there was just six yards four yards three yards six yards oh time's up right like he has the ability to do both and I don't think we're going to see Mahomes throw three interceptions again like he did against the Jets

you know that's kind of like Kirk that's probably going to be his worst game all year now he's not going to do that two weeks in a row the other guy though that really intrigued me in this last game was Gray the other tight end you know he made some plays he stretched the field and so now you can't really focus all your energy on 87 because that other tight end's got some good speed good good things with the ball in his hands too you really need to contain Mahomes in the pocket and get home with four that's what you have to do and you're not going to get home every time you have to accept that but you have to get home just enough to affect him like the Jets did this week where it gets him off his spot you're hitting his legs as he's falling he's dinking it short whatever may be or you're dropping into coverage and just saying hey we know that he's going to be

able to hold the ball for a little bit but let's cover everything and hope one of these guys can get home and make a sack, whether it's three seconds, four seconds, five seconds chasing him around like a crazy person, like we saw Quinn and Williams doing, Jeremiah doing, all those guys. So, yeah, don't blitz him. You can't blitz him. You just can't. I think the run blitzes will be good.

You know, first and second down, creating, if it's an obvious run situation like they like to do with that 12 personnel get in there. Run blitzes are good, but if you get them in third and long, you got to just play coverage and hope to win up front. Folks, this fall season is an unbelievable time for sports, and I'm always a fan of trying to catch other games when I go on the road to cover football, like baseball, hockey, basketball, just about anything. And that's why I use GameTime, the fast and easy way to buy tickets of any type of event, even music, comedy, whatever you're looking for. GameTime has last minute flash deals on tickets, images of seats, and a low price guarantee. You don't have to plan your tickets months out in advance. With GameTime,

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It's so interesting because you've seen him win every way and that's why he's who he is because the teams rush him he'll get the ball out he is incredibly cerebral about where the ball is supposed to go and he will get it out fast but if you cover he will just find find space, find space, find space, and then do something with it. And run was the thing that he did against the Jets, which we can see in the Super Bowl last year. Also, even when he was hurt, he had that big run that turned into the penalty against Cincinnati.

He's done it all with that. But I feel like if there's one way where he can be a little bit less than Superman, it is when there's like four guys or three guys rushing and he'll get a little bit anxious and just be like okay i think i can make the most godly throw ever and let me just try to and then it bounces off somebody's hands you get a pick like that does happen from time to time with him so brian floris has to really i sort of go with what are we actually good at, which is probably blitzing.

Like that's what he wants to do. That's the scheme they have versus maybe it's better to see if he grows impatient when I think he does when he's not on the same page with some of his wide receivers like he was in the past. So I really am intrigued by this matchup. And suddenly I feel like what's going to be really important is the last two weeks the opposing team has not run at all against the vikings in fact three of the four games the one game they gave up 260 so the run game element of

this i think becomes very important because if they can run like you said then they have answers for everything and it makes it so much more difficult. Yeah. And we're talking about going against one of the best offensive minds in the NFL and Andy Reid. Right. Andy Reid is fantastic at looking at a defense on tape and saying we're going to press on their weak point until they either fix it or they do something that gives us something else to do. So I would really expect the Chiefs to come out and say, all right, let's take a page out of the Eagles books and let's see if you guys can hold up against the run we don't have the offensive line that the Eagles have but our interior guys are really good so let's pound it up there with Isaiah Pacheco running like a crackhead and seeing if he can just pound it over and over and over again and wear out your smaller linebacking core you can see we can open things up for Mahomes

because you feel like you have to start blitzing to stop the run right that's what in my mind i think andy reed's gonna do because of how good he is at exploiting those things but i mean i'm not entirely sure because you have my homes you want to cut him loose let him do his thing but the great offenses adapt and andy reed's as good as they come so i want to ask you about the bigger picture here because of course this game is a huge swing game if you pull off an upset against kansas city seasons back on playoffs we're probably declaring this to be a pretty decent team maybe not super bowl contender but like a decent team that can beat anybody and that could be better than green bay and so forth like that'll be the state if they lose no matter how they lose,

one and four is a big hill to climb. I think the Kirk Cousins trade stuff is sort of off the table, but what you missed at 0-3 was people's brains breaking. In real time, watching the comment section when we go live and just watching

people bust in half. Fire the general manager, re-sign Kirk because we have no defense, but at least our offense is good. Trade Jefferson for three firsts. I mean, it got dark. You were out in the mountains or something hunting billy goats, and it was getting weird over here.

But what's the big picture for you about what the start of the season kind of means toward the future of this franchise? Yeah, nothing's really changed for me from what we talked about at the beginning of the year, which was this is an extremely talented football team, but it's got massive holes. Right. Like there's talent that is top tier talent. But the problem is the role players are bottom tier talent. And I hate saying that as a player that was a bottom tier talent guy. Like I was. I was a bottom third of the roster role player guy. But I wasn't a starter.

And we have those guys that are starters on this team in the holes. So I don't think you can say the season is a wash. I still think I put the wins. I think I put it at eight. Eight or nine when we went back. I still think that's a very doable thing because of our offensive talent but we're gonna lose some big games this is a game that's winnable but you look at our schedule going down the stretch there's no more there's no more like that's probably the easy win right no wins easy in the NFL it doesn't it doesn't change the fact

that I still think this is probably an eight win football team figure it out Kirk Cousins on a one year deal competitive rebuild or whatever you want to call it but I still think this is probably an eight win football team, figure it out. Kirk cousins on a one-year deal, competitive rebuild or whatever you want to call it. But I still think big picture is this team is what it is. It's had some unlucky breaks, but they're going to have some balls bounce their way as they come down the stretch here. Cause they're just too talented not to win games. Yeah.

The hard thing about looking at the schedule is you could absolutely talk me into a lot of wins, but then I would be like, they were one drive away from losing to carolina i mean that's the thing like so vegas is terrible and you know denver uh not so much good on the defensive side for denver but any given sunday with this team in particular you can't write in w's but you also can't write in l's when they play kansas city it's like they go to carolina I think, yeah, they could lose.

They come back home to Kansas City. Oh, yeah, they could win. That's who they are. Yeah. It's a complete crapshoot every week, and so much is dependent on how eight plays. Like Kirk, you've got to be on your A game every week. We got pretty lucky last week that Bryce Young was over there

and it wasn't Andy Dalton even or CJ Stroud even right Bryce Young played terribly right so if Kirk's not playing his A game this team has no chance because we're gonna have to score 30 points a game that's just kind of where we're at so I believe that's why you and I both say you're going you could win or lose every single game based off of how our offense plays as long as our defense gets us at least one takeaway or doesn't give up uh 260 yards on the ground and it keeps our offense off the field that's what teams are going to do be like well this team's really talented offense let's just sit them on the bench how do we stop them keep jefferson over there twiddling his thumbs instead of running to past our corners right that's what you got to do And so each week is going to be such dependent on time of possession and how many chances do we get? How many red zone chances do we get? All those things

go back and forth. This team is a true coin flip every single week. It really is. It's a true coin flip. They can lose to bad teams. They can beat really good teams, but the great teams are consistent. And I think that's where Minnesota is not looked at as a great team, a contender team, just based off of all the inconsistencies across the board. And I think that that comes from exactly what you talked about, which is you have enough weaknesses that on any given Sunday can be exploited. And it's not hard to pick them out on the roster. And if you're Carolina, you can't exploit them. But if you're Kansas City, you probably can, especially considering who your head coach is. And, and they also, it's in a way, it's not great

the way they played against the jets because they played badly against the jets. So, you know, this week it's like, we better not do that again. You know, we better be on point, but I just think that, you know, this game is kind of a fascinating one to set as a barometer to how should we talk about you for the rest of this year? You go to one in four, your playoff chances go to very, very little. I mean, it's on life support at that point, even going to Chicago, which you never know what can happen in Chicago. No one knows that better than you actually have what can happen in Chicago. And then San Francisco comes in here and that's going to be a really tough one because that's an even better football team than Kansas city.

So this game kind of is going to change how I feel about them the rest of the way. I assume that we're both going to pick the chiefs to win this game because they won the super bowl last year. But how much, like what would it take for me to get you to bet on the Vikings? So like, I know you're not going to gamble on football, but like what would it take for me to get you to bet on the vikings so like i know you're not gonna gamble on football but like what if i said uh you know 10 to 1 5 to 1 40 to 1 like what's the you know what i mean like what what odds would you take you know i'm not i'm not sold

kansas city's gonna win this game you know i think it's more 55 4545. I think it really is based off of we saw how human Kansas City could really be last week against Zach Wilson and the Jets. Now, the Jets' defense is much better up front than what the Vikings' defense is. But Zach Wilson in that offense was also pretty anemic at times, and they still found a way to hang around. So, I mean, I think it's 55 45 kansas city wins this game i think they win this game based off the fact that they have the best

quarterback in football going against a very poor pat or very poor defense but i think it's gonna be closer it's gonna be a close game it's gonna be a hard fought game and i think it's gonna come down to who can make a play in the fourth quarter kirk cousins or patrick mahomes you know i think that at oh and three i might have been like stop it just because they're oh and three and then they win against carolina and i feel like i should still be saying stop it but i'm not because of the way kansas city has looked yes in in not just this game but multiple games where it does not seem like there's that offensive flow and at some point and i know new england did this for years where you just keep getting rid of wide receivers

but at some point you are down to the point where why you don't have good wide receivers and that matters like the vikings defensive backs are still they're one of their biggest weaknesses but how do you attack that with sky more who's never really Rice, their rookie, is getting in on some short passing game, but they don't have much for down the field outside of Valdez Scantling. And again, that's not a really impressive guy. So it kind of comes down to Travis Kelsey and whether you could slow him down in the chemistry with Mahomes, which is going to be tough, and avoid the Chris Jones strip sack.

And then you've got a shot. It doesn't sound that crazy. So I agree with you that I would lean Kansas City, but I'm not going to go full, hey, they have no chance, because they still have the talent to stay offensively with the Chiefs. 100%. That's where I'm at with it. I think offensively we can go toe-to-toe with them based off of the weapons we have,

but it's just hard for me to bet against the Kansas city chiefs and Patrick Mahomes. Like it's just hard for me to say a one in three Vikings team is going to beat the defending Superbowl champions. And also just to circle back, I agree with you on not changing how I felt about them going into the season. I thought they would make the playoffs. That is not dead at the moment. I thought they would win 10.

I'd probably move that to nine or 8, like where you're at. But I still think they're going to get on a roll and beat some teams and still be overall exactly what we thought they were going to be. And that also doesn't change how I feel about the future. Once again, watching Shadur Sanders and Caleb Williams and Drake May and everybody – I don't know if Drake May played this week, but watching those quarterbacks, Quinn Ewers and being like, not changing my mind, not changing my mind. It's still still feeling the same place, even if they had a bad draft in 2022 or whatever.

Love to see it. Hate to see it, Jeremiah. I'm going to start. I love to see two out of the three top draft pick rookie quarterbacks looking super fun. And these guys look like they're just going to be great quarterbacks to watch and follow their careers richardson and stroud and love to see the draft illuminati the draft reporting i would even call it uh fraudulism um of hey did you know cj stroud didn't get whatever on his S69 test? Like, that's a total misunderstanding what that test even is. But sure, lap it up, everybody.

Anthony Richardson can't throw the football. Okay, apparently you didn't watch any of him play in college, but that's some good stuff right there. The NFL, not fooled. They took him number two and number four because they are great prospects and they're playing great. So congratulations to them. the nfl not fooled they took them number two and number four because they are great prospects and they're playing great so congratulations to them none of that bs got to the nfl teams and uh you know they're playing good and i'm excited to see where it goes yeah my love to see it is dan campbell

and the detroit lions i love the way that they're playing football right now the physicality i love jared goff going on the thursday night set afterwards and looking at ryan fitzpatrick going i wasn't sure i was the poor man's anything after being called the poor man's matt ryan like that team's just got a moxie and a confidence to them right now that embodies their head coach and they're playing at a really high level i love the way that dan campbell approaches the media i love the way that team approaches the every single week, physical relying on their offensive line to get the job done and just finding ways to win each and every week, not putting so much on Jared Goff's shoulders or like,

you have to lead us the way playing to the strengths of that team, the old line, the running game. I think it's a very well coached team. And I just really love watching the Detroit lions play football. I'm going to go hate to see it. Thursday night football this week, which is what Chicago and Washington.

Hate to see that. Hate to see what I saw last night was Seattle and the New York giants. The New York giants are on national TV again next week. Look flex early NFL and flex always. Okay always okay i mean you need to start this at like week three aaron rogers gets hurt everybody flex like i don't want to see any more of the new york jets although you know look shout out to zach wilson who played a good game i mean he really did uh it's i've never seen before the other team being like hey zach wilson played a good game so you guys need to remember that like wow how bad has somebody been in their career that the other team is saying like

stops being so hard on him but the national tv slate will get good with San Francisco and the Cowboys so I love to see that but the Thursday night the Monday night so far this year it has not been a great run yeah I agree i think you should always have the ability to flex those games not as much the thursday night thursday nights have to be said just because of what it is but you should be able to flex monday night football now you you should be able to flex that game and go through it uh my hate to see it and i'm probably along with 90 of other loving football watchers i'm sick of hearing about taylor swift i'm tired of it i'm tired about hearing about i'm tired about watching sunday night football or whenever the chiefs

are playing and azeo pacheco isaiah pacheco has a beautiful touchdown run and he looks great he breaks tackles the blocking scheme was great and all we can see is taylor in her stupid booth like yeah like i can't stand it keep football football and then let's not be so transparent and cut directly to the era's movie tour like could we be more transparent on what we're trying to do here and i had a buddy that was texting me he's like it's for the cause right no scandals like we're not reading about guys doing bad things like it's good for the image of football the hell it is i don't want to hear about it i'm done with it everyone's done with it let's keep football about football we don't have to worry about what ying yang and taylor swift and blake lively and all those fun people are doing it's the same thing with see you I'm tired of hearing about

the see you guest list right like kevin garnett's in the house oh cool who cares let's just keep it about what's between the white lines and that's all I want to know maybe it's the football purist maybe it's the old man in me but I'm just sick of hearing about it so here's my thing uh i have no issue with taylor swift whatsoever i went to her concert it was a really fun time i'm not a huge i'm like not a huge huge person of her music my wife really likes it and the concert was cool as heck man like anybody could be the biggest hater but you go the energy in the building the show they put on it's like broadway it's incredible i respect her business acumen and if we can ever turn purple insider into capital one purple insider or

whatever i mean my god this lady knows how to make a buck and she's maybe involving herself in the nfl further for that reason as well. Much respect. Shout out to all great business people. I hope you all make money. It's been over the top of the broadcast. It's been over the top in the reporting. It's just been like way too much. Also, I welcome all Swifties to learn football and then stay with it.

Like, it's great. Really fun sport for those who hadn't watched before uh but uh the whole thing of like you said we have to cut to her every time we have to like be talking about her or whatever i i just don't need this did you were you ever in a locker room where a guy was dating a celebrity i don't think so no i don't think so either i don't remember anybody who's like dating anybody i mean it's even kind of like you change your Twitter header. Like, it's like, thanks for coming, Taylor. It's like, what are we talking about?

Like, that has nothing to do with football. And yet we're just obsessed with this person. I don't know. I'm just an old man. I hate it. I think you can live in both worlds without being like, F her or something crazy where you're getting like too angry. Like, all right, it's just a pop singer, all right? But also be like, all right, NBC, please, play cool for once.

You know? Collinsworth, put it in your pants. Like, golly, dude, I'm tired of it. A lot of high-pitched squealing has been going on from football people, and it's a little weird. So anyway, well, we'll see if she shows up. I know of some reporters who are going to have their binoculars in tow. Is she out there?

Is she celebrating? So we'll see. I love it. But anyway, I just always say, you know, try not to get angry at things unless you need to. So I try not to get mad at this. But mute button is happening at times. So anyway, well, thanks, Jeremy, for your time.

And hey, why don't you write a hit song if you don't like her so much? She's got a lot of them. No, I'm just kidding. She's the problem. It's not me. She's the problem. Oh, there you go so you know you know just you know what after they have the references on tv just shake it off shake

it off that's what you need to do goodbye let's let's do this in a week all right we'll see you see you next week