Purple Insider - a Minnesota Vikings and NFL podcast - Jeremiah Sirles thinks the Vikings can make the playoffs behind Nick Mullens

Episode Date: December 14, 2023

Former Viking Jeremiah Sirles joins Matthew Coller to talk about what went sideways with Josh Dobbs and whether Nick Mullens is a better fit for what Kevin O'Connell wants to do on offense. Can they win two out of four games down the stretch? And a scary stat about Mullens. Plus what Jeremiah loves about Brian Flores' defense Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Hey everybody, welcome to another episode of Tuesday Morning Left Guard. Yes, it's Wednesday, but that's okay. That's not the point. It's really more of a vibe. Former Minnesota Viking Jeremiah Searles, of course, as always. Question for you, Jeremiah. What the heck happened to Josh Dobbs? I don't know, dude. I think his oxygen suit for the past are not slowly leaking and he has less oxygen in his brain to be able to do things fast because he looks so lost, so confused, and you're starting to see why he's been a career backup his entire life.

I think we talked about it, and I've talked about this a lot, when you come in, the adrenaline rush, and they're like, I'm just a baller I'm just flying by the seat of my pants and making things happen whoo but when you have weeks and weeks and weeks when you're the starter you're the guy it's really easy to get in your own head especially when things aren't going great and also I think I wish I had the time to go back and study every defensive scheme that he's gone against since he became the starter to really start feeling a trend of what they've been trying to do to him because you have to give credit to the defensive coordinators in this league.

They're really freaking good. They know how to scheme up a quarterback. They know how to rattle a guy. They know, okay, take this away from him and make him beat us with something that's not his best. And, you know, you haven't seen the big explosive scrambles out of Dobbs because I think guys are rushing him differently. And, like, there's all these different things.

But he came crashing back down to earth. His processing's too slow. He's scared to make a mistake. And I think KOC made the right move this week, even though I was full-steamed Joss Dobbs last week. I mean, you are what you've done lately in this league. I think it is time for the Nick Mullins switch out. Okay.

So after the first two games, all of us reporters are like, oh, this is kind of interesting. We've seen a lot of ball. And I had JTO Sullivan, who played in the NFL, does amazing content over at QB school. He's on. And I'm asking him, what do you think? Like, could he be a bridge quarterback?

Like, no one's declaring Dobbs franchise quarterback. But like, hey, can you lead him into the playoffs? Like, what do you think? And he be a bridge quarterback like no one's declaring Dobbs franchise quarterback but like hey can you lead him into the playoffs like what do you think and he's like yeah I mean like the guy's got more physical skill than most backup quarterbacks you know he's very intelligent okay not the most accurate but you could see this playing out like even the team is getting very excited about Josh Dobbs and in Denver there were little cracks in the foundation, but nothing to make me think that suddenly they would score 10 points. Because, of course, Mullins had the three points. So 10 points in for nine quarter, no, seven quarter, whatever it is. Right?

Like just horrible. It's just bad. Disaster. Right. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, I guess I just can't figure out exactly how it would crash so hard. And that's where I think a lot of people go back to, well, was it Kevin O'Connell like being actually better when pairing down the offense for him to make it more simple than it was him trying to put the whole offense on him, which he couldn't actually execute because he's Josh Dobbs and not Kirk Cousins. Yeah. And I think it's the latter because I look around the league and the teams that are having success with backup quarterbacks. It's so simple. It's it's screens,

it's slants, it's draws and handoffs and relying on the run game. I mean, I use the bangles as an example. Jake Browning is one of the most efficient quarterbacks in the last two weeks right because half his throws are to jamar chase or t higgins or joe mixon right over the middle right drew samples become his best friend right and they're just simple execution throws and then the offensive line is picking up the slack going all right we're going to be a running football team a little bit now we're going to hand joe mix in the ball we're going to get this running back this rookie brown we're going to get him going a little bit and they're taking so much pressure off browning that it just allows him to just execute right just be execute and don't lose us the game don't throw a bad interception

just go out there and be efficient and let our playmakers play and that's what dobbs was doing early when they first got him in there but now you you're seeing KOC get back to his DNA of long developing down the field routes, big crossing routes. You have to read coverage, understand conversions. Like there's so much that is in KOC's very complex offense, which if you can run it, it's electric. But when you have a guy that's already scared because things aren't going well, he's trying not to make a mistake.

He's trying to fight for his job and it just he's processing too slow and that falls on both of them one you have to as a quarterback be able to be like whoa this is too much right like let's let's go back to what we did and koc has to recognize that but there's a little bit of a disconnect maybe dobbs is saying he can do it and then once the real bullets and the real bright lights come on it's not working and i think that's probably more what's happening is during the week he's saying i got it i got it i got it because you got to remember this time of year you're not practicing a lot and that's something that we don't talk about in the media a lot like the practices this time of year are very very light because you're beat up right everyone's beat up it's december football everyone is in the war of

attrition let's make sure we can just find a way to Sunday. So you're not getting more than probably 24 plays a day. And that's being serious. Usually it's like three periods of eight. Then you have a seven on seven. And then you have some one-on-ones. But other than that, it's not this intensive game plan install like you have during training camp or even in the beginning part of the year. Guess what?

You honestly don't even have pads on most of the time. So really the only time he's getting live looks at these things is on game day and that's a hard thing for KFC to evaluate during the week to then say can he do it on Sundays and we're seeing the fact like okay maybe it's too much during not too much during the week and not enough on Sundays yeah when we were out at practice the other day and it was kind of a walkthrough session, but Harrison Phillips, Jonathan Bullard, Kairos Tonga, and someone else, another defense tackle. We're all standing about 15 yards away for each other,

throwing a football into a can. And they were like, it's probably, you know, who can like playing a game of can jam or whatever for quite a long time. Because like these guys, it would be a terrible idea to have these guys practicing. Like they have played so many snaps. And also by now they've pretty much got it.

And so it's just installing whatever they're going to do game plan wise, which, as you said, is very hard for a quarterback to get intense timing, footwork, detailed reps, unless you also want to have your defense and your wide receivers completely gassed as well, which which they look like they might be a little bit. Some of the other non-Jefferson receivers who have dropped the ball. Jordan Addison, I think, has hit a little bit of a wall because everybody had to give so much to make that happen. In order to get Dobbs to do that, from the coaches to the offensive line, which has had more problems the last couple of weeks to the receivers. I mean, it's just so much intensity to have to get you those few wins

to keep you in the race. And that's why usually those 0-3 teams don't make the playoffs because even if they have a surge, they expend all of their energy just to get in there. And then they'll talk about, well, we've got five straight weeks of playoffs. You're like, that's bad. Yeah. Emotionally and physically, you can't run that hot for that long. You just can't, the body can't sustain it. And, you know, it's great to have those emotional wins and it's not just the emotion or the week, but like also the way that we've won games has been high emotions,

right? The dopamine only can last so long in the brain. It's just one of those things that eventually come crashing. When you have a young team, like some of these young players, the rookie wall is a very, very real thing. These guys, like the Addison, we'll use Addison for example. He finished his career at USC. Pretty sure he played in the bowl game i'd have to go back and check but from jan 1 of last year that dude has had the most stressful year of his life right the pre-draft process is incredibly stressful you've got the senior bowl and then

you've got the combine then you've got pro day then you've got 30 visits and then you've got private workouts and then you've got the draft and then you're like, OK, we made to the draft. Boom. OTAs ready. Here we go. Rookie figured out. Right. And then you just go through everything and you're just running hot. Like I said, eventually the rookie wall come December when your body is used to like, I don't play football in December. Right. I just practice great for bowl game. It's like, no, no, this is not cutting time. Young Buck. Right. Like everything matters. Everything goes. It just wears on these guys. And you see it year in and year out. I talk to my rookies about it all the time like you gotta find ways to rest and recover mentally in this time because you're gonna just wear yourself out and then you add on top of

all that what this season has been for the vikings a lot of these guys cups are running on e and there's really no end in sight to get it filled back up the only thing that can fill it up is winning that is it right nothing else during the week get it filled back up. The only thing that can fill it up is winning. That is it, right? Nothing else during the week can fill it back up besides just winning football games. When you're not winning, it's just draining, draining, draining. Yeah. And another thing that I think a lot of college players don't really run into a lot is losing. Like, I mean, even to be seven and six for most college players who get to the NFL, that's a lot of losing.

And I mean, I remember, uh, Sage Rosenfeld told me once about a teammate that had played at some major program and in Miami, they lost like two games in a row. And he's like, I've never lost two games in a row. This is horrible. When is this, you know, this never happens to me. And even Jordan Edison, I mean, they were really good at pit. They were super competitive there. They were really good at USC. And now, you know, you're dealing with a lot of ups and downs that I think the intensity of the emotions can get to guys as well. So I think he's got to fight his way through that physically as well. He was a banged up in a rookie mini camp and OTAs. And I think a mini camp, he didn't go through any of that because he was hurt and then it goes right into training camp and so forth so there's a there's a lot there but just

to circle back though to what we were talking about before I pulled up here Jake Browning since week 12 has 340 yards on play action hold on let. Let me load. 205 yards on screens. So that's 400. Wait. Three. 545. Carry the two. Yes.

A lot of yards. A lot of yards. 500 plus. 545 yards. In three weeks on screens or play actions and so yeah i mean we kind of went into that conversation of how like exhausting this is but i did want to circle back because the most common sentiment that i have gotten from people about dobbs who really bought in which was a lot of people uh is that kevin o''Connell tried to put too much on his plate

and didn't pare it down enough and should be criticized for that. Now there's seven and six in a season. They were Owen three. If they win two out of four, they are a hundred percent chance to make the playoffs. According to that New York times playoff machine. And they could make the playoffs while basically having no Justin Jefferson for most of the season and no quarterback. It's really hard for me to be like, bleep that coach. He doesn't know what he's doing. But there are times where I'm like, why is Brandon Powell 28 yards down the field? Ain't nobody getting him the ball there. I mean, like Nick Mullins, I'm watching the tape last night. There's a boot there i mean like nick mullins i'm watching the tape

last night there's a bootleg to his left for nick mullins brandon powell's run a corner route he's like 30 yards down the field and like look man cj stroud might be able to just flip his wrist to get the ball there but nick mullins is going to get you three yards to uh tj hockinson i i do think that it's very hard to be like, all right, guys, remember all that stuff we installed in training camp, throw it all out. We're running the boots, baby. That's hard as well. But there is part of me that thinks there might be some truth to some of the critiques here that he's going to want to run his offense. And if you can't run it, that's kind of a you problem and not a him problem. I don't know that That's how it felt coming out of that game.

Yeah. The other piece of this, too, is the absolute abysmal running game. The running game has not been something that we can just rely on. And it's one of the things that we didn't really have a great one to start with. But, again, I'm going to go back and use the Bengals, and I'm going to use the Jets. They know that they have Brees Hall. So they're just like, like we're just gonna keep giving him the football some way shape or form right whether it's runs or checkdowns or whatever and then the bangles like well we're just gonna

rely on joe mixon right like we're just gonna give the ball to our other guys and try and find some more ways to create yards on the ground and draws handoffs or even those little screens kind of an essential like little bit of a run play on first down, right? A screen on a first down, I equivalent to like another form, a branch of the run game a little bit. And we just haven't been able to do that. You know, we've had question marks of the running back position all year long, Madison Chandler, like it's just gone back and forth. Who's going to be the guy who's not going to do it. And that puts a lot of pressure on the play caller because when you can't feel like you have success on first and second down run of the football you feel like you have to throw it

and that then again puts a lot more pressure on your quarterback than needs to be and I agree with you I think KOC tried to do too much with them but it's also it's you can't just throw out your offense right you can pivot right it's okay to pivot to different things in your offense but this was our offense right it wasn't like we we were able to just do whatever we wanted on the run game and we had no identity and now it's just going back to i don't really know what to do besides just run my offense like i can't i don't know what else to call i don't know where else to go i don't know what to do and this is him growing as an as a head coach and a play caller too like this is his growth time and you're right we can't

just sit here and bag on him because what he was able to do with an 0-3 team and to come back and say hey stay with me keep the team around find a way like he's a really good coach in the sense of finding ways to rally keep his team together and I'm willing to give him some grace in this situation because it's not an easy situation to be in in the NFL at all. Any NFL team that loses their starting franchise quarterback of multiple years usually just goes down the toilet. And the fact that he's kept them competitive week in and week out, it may not be pretty, but they've been competitive. It's really, it is a tip of the hat to him,

but he does still have to adjust in the last few games here. Yeah, and when it comes to criticizing O'Connell and the offense and everything else, I'm always like hesitant when it's a backup quarterback to push down on that button too hard. I do think that if you spend the week talking about how you're adjusting to Josh Dobbs strengths, and then I look at a third and three and everyone is way down the field. I'm like, that's not adjusting to Josh Dobbs' strengths. And when I asked him about it, it was kind of like, well, see, in the run game, we were using him more out of the gun to be a run threat.

It's like, oh, okay, so your pass game works, and you're going to run it. And the thing is, it does work. It won a Super Bowl with Matthew Stafford. It was a top-ten offense with Kirk Cousins and Justin Jefferson. It just, I think it's fair to be like, I don't know why you thought that was going to work for Josh Dobbs over a number of weeks. And that's why Nick Mullins is now the quarterback.

And watching Nick Mullins, so I went back and I watched his two drives. And one thing I thought was, you know, do you remember how Greg Maddox used to throw it like 84 miles an hour and try to paint the corners? Well, he could throw it 84 miles an hour. I don't know if he could paint the corners. But when they were able to convert a couple of third downs, he would drop that.

It's the only guy in the bigs who was thrown 84 miles an hour. It's incredible. What a comparison. The rest of them were in triple a. So, uh, so he would, but a couple of times he dropped back and he had to throw a really nice anticipation ball and it took a little while to get there, but it landed in KJ Osborne's hands. It landed in Jordan Addison's hands. I also fully understand why he has 23 interceptions in 17 games as a starter, which is that he has to throw with so much anticipation that on Addison's catch, the corner is this far away from just taking that ball back for a pick six. So this would be the, okay, you can run the offense, but where I think Nick

Mullins did a great job was he got pressured one time up the middle and just got it out. New where's outlet was the TJ Hawkinson got a first down on third and three. And on that play action we're talking about, he understood if I try to make that throw, that's getting picked off. So why don't I just check it to TJ Haw hawkinson we'll just keep that offense moving forward and i do think that he understands so much better where he's supposed to go with the football that he does at this point give them a better chance to win i wanted to keep that door open for dobbs as long as possible but after seeing that i think it's pretty clear yeah because mullins understands his outlets and his security blankets within the scheme. Dobbs outlets and security blankets are create with his legs.

And that is a feast or famine type of deal, right? That's always electric. He's going to make something happen or he's going to try to escape out of the back of the pocket sack. Now we're third and 18, right? Or he's going to try to escape and people are moving everywhere and he's going to try and force a ball. And he didn't see the backside safety screaming out over the top right that's that's a great point that you made about the outlets within the scheme because those are built in with just tons of time and reps and understanding of going against the brian flores defense and training camp and going

okay i get pressure up the middle against this specific call with this protection that i have called i know my outlet is to my right. Or I know if I have empty protection that my offensive line is going to protect me to my left and I'm hot to my right. I have to know that if I see pressure over there, I got to get the ball out. And that just is with the living within the scheme and trusting the scheme and trusting everyone else to do their job.

And that's not a knock on Dobbs because remember he's only been here, what, five weeks? I think we're at five weeks now. Like that's a hard thing to grasp in five weeks when you've been ingrained in another system for eight months, right? It's really hard to just completely wash that because you can be thinking, okay, and this, I got this and it's like, wait, in Arizona was this and then said, hot, bam, there's a blitzer, right? It happens just so quickly. And so if you want to talk about answers, because the pressure rate's going to dial up with Nick Mullins there's no doubt about that he's going to get pressured because he can't move like Josh Dobbs can't right you saw it with Kirk Kirk got pressured a lot but Kirk was had the answers and it was dangerous right you you gambled when you pressured Kirk

because you knew what you had Mullins doesn't quite have the velocity on the ball to really make you hurt when it comes like that like the ability like okay this is I'm gonna get pressured I'm gonna zip this thing to Jefferson on an in cut at 16 yards ball floats a little bit doesn't quite have the ump behind it but at least he'll know where to go with those type of looks this show is being brought to you by better help folks the holidays are an exciting time for buying gifts and spending time with family, but you have to remember that sometimes the best gift is the one you can give yourself. If you're finding the holiday season tough on you, maybe the best gift is paying a little more attention to yourself, whether that's therapy or just finding time away from the holiday stress. If you are interested in getting someone on your side this December,

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it's rather obvious what it means. We just hadn't done that in a while. So Nick Mullins in 2018, when he was starting was the ninth lowest quarterback rating quarterback out of 39 that year that had enough dropbacks while under pressure. And in 2020, he was the fifth worst. So when he did have a clean pocket though he had the 11th highest and 17th highest respectively quarterback ratings which is not uh putting him in the hall of fame but it means that he could play reasonably well as a quarterback when he

is given time to throw and when he is not it is going to be not good and you mentioned the running game well alexander mad Madison didn't practice yesterday. I don't think he could play with a sprained ankle one week after, uh, and try to carry a running game. So now you've got Ty Chandler, Kenny Wong Wu, and,

uh, Dwayne McBride is still on the football team. Uh, so I guess probably elevate him. And that's all you got at this point. Kenny Wong, who's got like nine carries in his career. Ty Chandler since that Denver game has had a few opportunities, but hasn't been able to break one off.

And, you know, Madison was finally playing well over these last three games. And this goes under the category of, can we criticize the play caller or not? That they ran a lot more pass plays than run plays over the last two weeks and like couldn't pass at all so you talk about like the run game and it was finally working a little bit and I think this is because teams were selling out to keep Dobbs in the pocket so they were rushing that way which created some lanes for the run and this is where you're talking about like learning and developing. And this year might be better for Kevin O'Connell in the long run. I do think that you have to

understand as a play caller that if the other team can't stop the run, just keep pushing the run. And there will be a zero yard run mixed in, but that's okay if you keep going back to it. And with Nick Mullins, you're playing Cincinnati. They don't have a great defense. If you can run the ball effectively, you have to keep running it. And they're going to want to push it to Jefferson. I think he's going to be back. And I know that like what every offensive coordinator wants is their passing routes to be genius.

And for everybody to screen grab and tweet it out and be like, KOC, what a genius to watch a game later in the night. They stole your route combination. Whoa, that's what the Vikings did. So cool. Everyone wants that. But in order to get in the playoffs, I mean, you might have to win in a much more gritty fashion than I think this team is shown to be capable of. Yeah. Playoff games are ugly. They always are, right?

They're ugly. They're grinders. They're the team that can just last, right? And this team is not built like that. And I'm not saying that in a knocking way. It's just check the tape, right? Check the resume of what this team's tape is. They win off big explosive plays big plays down the field that type of thing i very rarely this year have i seen them be able

to go 12 plus play drives of just grinding it out on an 80 yard drive four yards four yards six yards there's finding a ways it's always been skipping some third downs a big play down the field and the playoffs teams are going to make you grind it out against them I think back to the Buffalo Cincinnati game last year in the snow in the blizzard backup offensive linemen all those things and they just start grinding it out running the football with Joe Mixon those guys and we just aren't built like that right now and it's unfortunate but it is what it is I don't think you can fix all that in week 14 I just don't think it works like that 50 week 15 but the most recent development here over the last few weeks is

Brian Flores's defense for a little while we're going like oh okay all right this is pretty good this this coming along it's coming along but then when you do it week after week after week and now they have cracked the top five in scoring which is unfathomable to me after looking at the roster and you and I were going through it before the show there's one first round draft pick there's only there's no second round draft pick outside of Byron Murphy so there's one first only, there's no second round draft pick outside of Byron Murphy. So there's one first rounder. There's one second rounder. Everybody else is a middle round draft pick or undrafted free agent in the case of Ivan Pace Jr. And they have come together with Brian Flores to create what is a legitimately great defense. This defense though is going to be tested because it's a lot of smoke and mirrors. It's a lot of guys who have overachieved and who have been put in positions to succeed.

It's also a lot of quarterbacks who have given them that opportunity to do so. Now that doesn't mean that Jake Browning is going to turn into Ken Anderson, but, uh, or even Boomer Esiason. But, uh, as I mentioned with those screens and with play play actions and they have a guy who's got an argument for best wide receiver in the entire NFL as well in Jamar Chase. These last few games are going to test just how good this defense really is, I think. And the track might be harder. Like they might have to actually score 20 points. It came to win. So we were kind of talking about this world where they grind it out and run some boots and try to, you know,

hit one pass down the field to Justin Jefferson or something. But I think these teams coming up are going to probably score some points. So I guess my question is, can they, can they win two? They only need two and they're in the playoffs, but can they win two? They only need two, and they're in the playoffs. But can they win two after what we just saw offensively? I think they can based off of what we look at.

I mean, look at Detroit right now. They're kind of reeling. They're not what they were the first half of the season by any means. Jared Goff has regressed. I mean, they're still trying to figure out their defense. They started giving up way more points than they were at the beginning of the year. I think we can split one with Detroit, absolutely. I really do.

I think splitting one with Detroit. So then it goes to Green Bay or Cincinnati, right? Like that's the next one because I do think Detroit wins one. Probably in Detroit, they probably win. But I think you look at Green Bay and Cincinnati, and I think both those games are winnable I really do because both those teams haven't shown to me that they're just juggernauts right juggernaut teams and Jordan Love has been playing well as of late Jake Browning may come back down to earth he may not but you just look at what this defense can do and if you're okay, if our defense is playing this well,

how do we help them? Just sustain drives, right? I think we can win too if we just start sustaining some more drives and not putting our defense in position to have to play 70 snaps a game. Like that's where we're going to get ourselves in trouble. Down the stretch here, like you said, the defensive linemen are standing around at practice because they're gassed. Like they are absolutely worked of how much play they have had to do if we can allow them to stay fresh and allow them

to continue to play their style of aggressive get after the quarterback type of defense I absolutely think we can win too and if I had to put my finger on it I'm going to say it's Green Bay like I think Cincinnati's hot right now I think Cincinnati's really feeling good they've got a really good rhythm they're feeling really good coming into this game. It's on the road in Paycor, which that place is going to be freaking electric because they are making a push as well. I think if we need to win two, it's one against Detroit and Green Bay to get ourselves into the playoffs.

They could definitely win two in part because these other teams are volatile. And if it was Joe Burrow, I'd be like, I don't know, man, that's going to be a pretty tough task. And that guy is going to identify all your stuff and probably find open receivers. But if all you're running is play actions and screens to get these yards from Jake Browning, then which goes also, by the way, to the did we mis-evaluate Jake Browning? Like, no, probably not. It's that if this team has a great quarterback, they could win the Super Bowl. So that's probably the reason, but I feel like they can slow down this offense that has been so hot with Jake Browning in there and on defense, like it's the right team for Jake

Browning to face. Like they're just not the same defense that they even were last year. If they were going to go deep into the playoffs or are still, uh, they're going to need way more than they've got. They've got one guy, Trey Hendrickson, who is amazing, but the rest has kind of been a struggle and we'll get to the offensive line in a minute because it's talk about a struggle is banged up at this moment um but with green bay everyone sort of anointed jordan love is is the way for football i hear people be moaning this oh well you overreacted to jordan love you overreact to this you react to that he who can't overreact to football, please step forward.

I think this is why we watch it because everything we just saw might be blown up in a week and you never know where this roller coaster is going to take you. So I don't know how good Jordan love is still. I think that he's improved, but he has these major accuracy issues. You could take the ball away from him for a defense that is really proven. They could take the ball away.

And then Detroit on a week to week basis. Would I be surprised? Detroit was awesome next week. Like, no, would I be just surprised if they were terrible? No, like that's,

it seems to be who they are. So I think they can get to, but I know they can't get to if Nick Mullins gets sacked a bunch of times and throws interceptions because he's pressured Brian O'Neill sprained ankle. He's either going to be out or he's going to be playing on one leg the rest of the way, and they face some pretty good pass rushers. This is now my biggest concern, I think, because now that they've gotten banged up and worn down over these weeks,

this is not the number one pass-blocking offensive line that they were like three, four weeks ago. Yeah, I mean, O'Neill being out is going to be really tough the number one pass blocking offensive line that they were like three four weeks ago yeah i mean o'neill being out is going to be really tough because you talk about the stretch of pass rushers rashaun gary and you mentioned uh uh trey hendrickson but even even sam hubbard's serviceable with a bull rush and when you have a bum ankle oh man sitting on a bull rush hurts right it just it's not a pleasant thing and it's one of those things where you're going to sit and you could roll it again right that's not a fun one Aiden Hutchinson you know you go back to him twice too so there's some dudes that are going to be coming off the edge here

coming for us in a big way and like we said Nick Mullins historically isn't great under pressure so it's not just going to be the four rushers it's going to be different linebackers coming i mean i think about alonzo uh how do you say alonzo or whatever the long stringy i'm just gonna leave that for you i'm not helping you're so mean to me anyway he's a really good pass rusher in that run and like how they blitz there too obviously logan wilson's very good in the blitz game coming at it too you're so so mean to me. Please help me remember that guy's name. Gosh dang it. But anyways, like the pressure that's going to come from the middle as well, and you talk about Madison being out, Ty Chandler,

and those guys having to come in, they're going to have to also step up in the pass protection game too. But yeah, our offensive line being beat up right now, Dalton Reiser not playing his best football right now either. It's really strugglesome when you're talking about a third string quarterback, a beat up offensive line to just think that we're going to come out and have a ton of success against these defenses as well. You want to try one more time? Alonzo Alonzo and I know what did you call?

What is it? I'm good. It's Alex Anzalone. Anzalone. I was close. Do you want to see his picture on PFF? It's amazing amazing it's incredible it's absolutely i know exactly yeah you've seen it okay well it is for the um for the youtube

audience for the youtube viewers i'm gonna share my screen here real quick and just show uh because this is truly incredible uh let's make it can we make it full screen look at this i mean that oh that's me wait that's look at screen? Look at this. I mean that. Oh, that's me. Wait, look at that. Look at that guy. I mean, that is, that's a beautiful man right there. That, that man cannot believe it's butter or whatever, or can't believe it's not butter.

Sunshine, sunshine. That's the guy doing the yoga in the park. Remember the Titans? Oh yes. Beautiful. But he's a very good blitzer. He's a very good blitzer. He's in the park for the Titans. Oh, yes. Beautiful. But he's a very good blitzer. He's a very good blitzer. He's very effective coming off the edge or up the middle.

But I am no longer going to help you when you can't remember a player's name. I'm just I'm going to leave you out there. I have CTE. That's not fair. It's wow. It's just too far, too far and too soon. But to the point, though, I mean, yeah, this offensive line is going to face some challenges because, you know, Ed Ingram might come back. Blake Brandel might be just as good. I thought Ingram was starting to fade a little bit anyway, and that may have been because he

was dealing with an injury or something. Even at left guard, Dalton Reisner had to leave the game and then comes back. So we're talking about an ankle injury at that point this is this has just been one of those years where they have had to fight and fight and fight and that's where i think i want to keep an eye on the big picture here mostly and we can react to games and we can break them down and we can talk about what went right or wrong but you you just can't lose sight of how much has gone wrong for this team. That's sort of out of your control, whether it's the fumbles at the beginning of the year, losing your quarterback.

And then all of a sudden you're starting running back who is finally improving your right tackle. Who's all world. Good goes down and the left guard. Who's kind of transformed your offensive line. Now he's going to play banged up your right guard who improved he's banged up like there's just there's just a lot going on here I mean Jefferson has a chest injury after being hit in the back that's not good like there's just

there's just a lot going on so if they make the playoffs I mean I think it will be impressive but I did want to ask you about the defensive side and what you what you see as a former offense man and when you are looking at the at florist's defense because i watch on tape and i'm like this this is pretty wild it's a lot going on here people move it all over the place there was a play where uh ivan pace jr is focused on him for my film thing where he's like lined up as an edge rusher and he runs off the line scrimmage as if he's going to edge rush against the left tackle left tackles like what's this little guy doing and then he slams on the brakes and takes the running back out of the backfield and then they

rush extra people from the other side and it ends up in a sack and you could tell the offensive line for the raiders was like, what was that? The heck was that? Like what? The little guy was on the edge. What's going on here? I, I, I've been so impressed that they could pull it off.

And I wonder if what we see around the league is defensive coordinators thinking, you know, we can actually do more than we thought we could at this level. I don't know. What have you, what have you seen? Yeah.

You know, I think we've seen a lot more of that this year not just from flores but from around the league because there's been so many backup quarterbacks in right because of the the amount of injuries to starting quarterbacks this year is the most that i can remember in a very very long time it allows defenses to be much more creative because the starters see it and the starters know where the holes in that scheme are. They know where, okay, if you're going to try and do this, I know that I'm going to get back to my read over here with the backup quarterback. And they just don't process it that fast. And you're talking about a second, right? One second, but one second for a starter versus a backup is

either a huge chunk game or a sack, right? So those two things but what Brian Flores has been able to do is he understands I don't have the personnel to just line up in 4-3 base over defense and say good luck boys figure it out like he has to scheme some things open and to have a team where you have so many guys so locked in to the scheme to understand the schematics of if we're going to show this we have to make sure we get to our spot in our drop or we have to make sure we stay in our gap or whatever it may be has been really fun to watch because you're right this defense the only way i can describe it is organized chaos like that's really the only way i can like put a stamp on like what's the viking scheme organized chaos man there's guys running everywhere every which way almost every play but at the end of the

day at the once the snap is put everyone's where they're supposed to be and that's incredible to have that many guys keyed into that with some young players specifically an undrafted free agent middle linebacker with the green dot calling all the signals right you can't sing his praises enough of what he's been able to do for this defense throughout this year. And then guys, really, in my opinion, they've taken developmental steps. DJ Wanham, he's really taken some big steps this year of becoming a better pass rusher, better against the run.

Harrison Phillips has gotten better this year. I mean, Metellus has gotten better. All these guys have developed within this scheme and not just ran the scheme better, but developed individually better too. And so that's on the coaches and singing their praises because it's hard to get some guys that are in years 4, 5, 6 to take a huge jump in their personal development as well. And Flores has found a way to press all the right buttons.

He's found a way to press all the right buttons of keeping the guys in the right lanes, call on plays for his players, and also throughout the week, making sure everyone's doing right things through the playbook, through the practices, whether it's a walkthrough or a mental rep, keeping everyone dialed in and locked in. And as a player, when you have full trust in your coach's play calling, you never deviate. You never go rogue. You never try and push too hard to make a play. You know, hey, what we're doing is working. Let's just stay within the scheme. Everyone do their job and we'll be just fine. Folks, I hope you've enjoyed listening to

us talk about prize picks this year, but if you've missed it, here's how it works. You go to prizepicks.com and it is simple. You pick either more or less between two and six players stat projections and that's it now you're playing so if it's x number of yards for a quarterback you just decide are they going to throw for more or less than that number of yards but it works with lots of different options receiving yards touchdowns even field goals all sorts of sports as well prizepicks.com slash purple. Go there, use the code purple for the first deposit match up to $100. One of the reasons I like PrizePix, it is very simple to use.

You'd see how we do it on the show real quick and easy. And then we talk about our picks and also not expensive either. You can turn $10 into $250 by nailing just a couple of picks so go to prizepicks.com slash purple the code purple daily fantasy sports made easy what would it mean to make the playoffs you've been on both sides of this yeah um 2016 was pretty rough at the end uh 2017 you know to make the playoffs and clinch it in Green Bay with a shutout, the last shutout since last week. So what does that mean?

What does it mean to a locker room organization, this team? What do you think? Yeah, I think this team specifically, like, obviously the goal is always to make the playoffs. Right? Just get into the dance. Right? I mean, obviously the the goal is always to make the playoffs, right? Just get into the dance, right? I mean, obviously the bigger goal is win a Super Bowl, but like the mini goal of throughout the year is like get ourselves in position to make a run at the thing, right? Just you can't win it if you don't make the dance.

And so as a team to get into the playoffs is such a win because there's so many guys that, you know, Hey, these guys are going home and i get to keep playing this game and for a locker room to have that just feeling i think bodes well for the following year right and i hate looking forward but you know when you're a playoff contention team it gives you confidence that hey we were better than two-thirds the NFL, right? Regardless of what the season said, because you get to the playoffs, zero, zero, right? Zero and oh, and oh, and oh records. Nothing else that you did matters. Now it's just a week to week survive in advance.

And if you can just get into the dance, you can kind of flush everything that had just happened to get there, right? You no longer worried about what happened two weeks ago or what is this team going to do? And you can solely focus and kind of re-energize yourself for that one week game one week season and to get into that it's a really mental like almost a mental like reset and so for this team to get in there i think that they could get in there and go okay we made it and there's you can go one way the other like

we made it and then it's this big giant let off or like we made it let And there's, you can go one way or the other, like we made it. And then it's this big giant let off or like we made it, let's make something happen. And we won't really know until this team gets in there, but that's how the locker room feels is once you get into the dance, you can kind of flush what the season was and not have to worry about that anymore. And if they are going to Detroit in the playoffs, then you're not going to feel like, Oh no,

it's Philly. Oh no, it's Dallas. Oh no. Right. I mean, so you are going to think there's a chance to win a playoff game and every team is just running a different race, uh, where

the Dallas Cowboys are right now, making the playoffs means nothing. I mean, if they, if they lose in the first round, then it is one of the biggest disasters in the league, right? If the Vikings lose in the first round, you're like, man, you got so much out of so many people that took huge steps forward that you feel like something came together here despite what happened. Now, that doesn't always prove to matter. People said that about Seattle last year.

And maybe I'll go back and take a look about what teams that barely squeaked into the playoffs and what we said about them at the time the New York Giants are another example right that's what I'm saying is like in I think that for Kevin O'Connell and Kwesi dafulmenta it is important because you're talking two years two playoffs a lot of trust gets built up in that time with owners. That's who it's really important to is you made the playoffs. It's not important to me so much if they lose in the first round, it's like, well, you know, they kind of are who we thought they were there and they went through too much to make it. And that is what it is. They're not a Superbowl contender. So,

you know, but if that ends up being the case, like, but to the owners of the team, to play in the playoffs, to be in the big weekend, to be on the big broadcasts, like all those things, like that's exciting. That's important.

And that builds up a lot of trust with the leadership. And the leadership's going to have to make some pretty darn difficult decisions here. I saw a stat on Twitter. I'm sorry, I forgot who tweeted it. That the Vikings have have 33 of their snaps are free agents coming up there's a lot to be done here there's a lot to be done and those owners need to say that's your plan all right then we're gonna do it um unless the plan is to bring back kirk no i'm just kidding i'm not kidding uh but you know what

I mean like I think that there's a there's an important vibe here of you change coaches after missing the playoffs two out of three years and then you're back in year after year that's where they want to be now you can sort of believe in them going forward whereas missing the playoffs would feel a heck of a lot worse even if that is usually what happens when you lose your starting quarterback yeah it it's a confidence thing but also it allows you to if you want to beat the table for some of those free agents right if you want to if you're a position coach and you want to beat the table like i need my guy back it allows you to have a little bit more leverage when you're talking to to the owners and talking to the gm of like see we made the playoffs with him right like he wasn't the problem right and then you just to have that conversation but when you don talking to the owners and talking to the GM of like, see, we made the playoffs with him, right? Like he wasn't the problem, right?

And then you just have that conversation. But when you don't make the playoffs, you lose a little bit more of that leverage of I want this guy back, maybe pay him an extra million bucks or whatever it may be. They're going to think we have to change. We have to find ways to refresh and get younger and all the things that come into free agency when that happens. So for KOC,

you know, a guy that pounds the table for his players, I think it's important that he makes the playoffs in that realm so that he can really go into those meetings and free agency and evaluate it from a position of strength. Instead of from a position of more of a weakness side of this didn't work, you have to do something different. And that's going to be a conversation that he's going to have to navigate in march and they want to sustain this reputation

of like this is a place where you want to be this is a team on the rise you want to come here and rush the passer uh all right so love to see it hate to see it i will uh start this off myrtle Beach Bowl, Cricket Celebration Bowl, R&L Carriers New Orleans Bowl, Avocados from Mexico Cure Bowl. Avocados from Mexico. It's a great commercial. I can't read that one because my computer is too far away. It's bowl season, baby. Yes. And we are starting off Saturday early in the morning. So before the game,

we've already got some bull action with Georgia, Southern Ohio, Howard versus Florida, A&M, Jackson state, Louisiana. I mean, we are off and running baby. It is bull season for like a couple weeks here where at any given time, you just pop on the old tube and there's football and people get mad at it oh i don't need all these bowl games i do i need them i love them i don't you know care about them but through as it's going along i'll get pretty invested in that football game so i'm excited bowl i am too because football season is nearing an end like right like we all live for september all of us we're just waiting for the to hear boomer and to hear our guys they're back on the tube and kirk curb street and lee corso not knowing where he is and you just you live for those moments and then to everyone be like oh man

it's almost over but bull season's like the nice little cherry on top yeah some games might be terrible but some games might be really good right like it might not be two very powerhouse teams but sign me up for the georgia southern versus louisiana lafayette 42 to 49 shootout right sign me up for those those are fun to watch those are fun to watch so i completely am with you i love bull season i think it's fun to turn on a tuesday night and be like oh football those type of things are really fun, but I am really looking forward to the playoffs too, as bad as it is for college football. I'm really excited for the college football playoffs as well. Everyone already forgot.

Everyone already forgot about that. People don't forget, Matt. People don't forget. I forgot. I don't even know who's playing. Good for you. Go ahead. Good for you.

My love to see it is the Dallas Cowboys getting a big-time win over a powerhouse team right I think for for a long time everyone was like the Cowboys have just been beating the crap out of mediocre teams right that's who they are they lose the big one right San Francisco drug them up and down the field and and everything and for them to go out and kind of get that monkey off their back before going into the playoffs I think was good for them. And I'm excited to watch Dallas. I think they're a very, very much a Superbowl contention team. And so I liked, I was good. I was happy for him. I was happy for Dallas. I was happy for Dak and those guys to go

get a powerhouse win and to finally get that monkey off their back heading into the playoffs. This is the best version of this group since McCarthy got there and they have the best point differential in the league. And because it's Dallas and they failed in the playoffs, everyone's like, who cares? Like, but, but they are, I think neck and neck with San Francisco. I think it's even for the best team in the entire NFL. And that continues to show week to week. And that's what those seasons are hard. Like when you go into a year where it really only matters if you reach the super bowl and then it's like, okay, you beat someone, no one cares.

And you, and you can be beaten. Like if the Vikings beat teams, we have a huge podcast and we like, everyone gets excited and everything else. They, they beat Atlanta. Here we go. But when you're in that mode and that's how it was in like 2018, every loss is the end of the world. And every win is like that. All right. On to the next win. Better do that. And that's that's where that team is. But we might want to just admit that Mike McCarthy is really dang good football coach. I mean, he he gets made fun of on Twitter and everything else so much more. And I think a lot of people want the other shoe to drop because they thought it was a bad hire. It's turned out to be a great hire for that team. Aside from the last place of playoff games, pretty much for my hate to see it. I have a question for you and you don't have to name any names,

but what's the weirdest thing a coach ever said to you? I knew this was coming. Honestly, what's the weirdest thing a coach ever said to you i knew this was coming honestly the weirdest thing i was ever a part of was the mike zimmer fat cats get slaughtered that that was the strangest meeting i've ever been a part of where he brought us in and there was a bunch of stuffed cats all around the locker room with their heads chopped off with some like marker underneath. And that was honestly one of those like team meetings where you left like what what was just said. Can we regroup and kind of understand what was just said? Like that one was very, very strange for me. For context, if people don't remember i would assume people remember but if they don't

uh you're five and oh 2016 and once upon a time bill parcells had hung rat traps or mouse traps or something from the ceiling and it was a trap game right like get it like trap game for his players and i think mike was trying to recreate that. And then it ended up in the newspaper and then it ended up on all the websites with some of the funniest headlines you've ever seen in your life. And then it ended up with Mike Zimmer reading the headlines at a press conference about what he had done to stuffed animals. And there were some really funny ones.

It was like a stuffed animal genocide, I believe was the funny one. Yep. Yep. So football coaches don't always understand how to connect and relate or get a message across. I remember Joe Thomas saying that Eric Mangini would have them memorize sayings around the building and have to give them in meetings.

And you're like, but why he's Joe Thomas. Like he doesn't need it. What he's joe thomas like he doesn't need it what he's he's also like 27. what are we doing here he's not nine uh so if football coaches get weird it does not get any weirder than what our buddy tyler dunn reported that sean mcdermott said if you haven't seen it i don't want to talk about it i just hated hated to see it. I actually think Sean McDermott is a really, really good NFL coach. And I, it's always unfortunate. And it was this way with Zim when someone is a really good football coach and is missing a gene there that helps them understand how they're going to be perceived when they do

and say stuff like that. I think McDermott has gotten better at it, but that was tough. SNL was making fun of this man over the report. So that's my hate to see it. You stole my hate to see it. I'm just going to double down on that. I'm going to double down on it because it is unfortunate. And what's unfortunate about it, too, is it was five years ago.

I think 2019. Right. So it's unfortunate about it too is it was five years ago i think 2019 2019 yes right so it's unfortunate that it came out now you know it's one of those things where you hear about it and you're like it's it would have been a lot easier to be like whoa right when it happened but i mean half the guys on that team weren't even around when it happened right it's one of those things where like yes it was not okay you can't do that the bad bad again if you haven't read it go read it but like you can't do that But for it to come out now when this team's trying to make a playoff push, you add a distraction, you add Von Miller's deal into the whole thing too, which you hate to see.

Like, you start talking about distractions in December football, it's really hard to try and make a playoff run. It can do one of two things. It can distract and kind of pull the team apart, or it sounds like it can kind of galvanize, right? And you heard Sean McDermott's speech at the end of the game and all his offense, D- d lineman when we got your back right so there's there's a lot of things that go into that but i agree i hate that that story came

out when it did i hate the what the story was like that's just a hate to see it all the way around yep yep for sure and uh last quick love to see it backup quarterbacks thriving in this life tommy devito like the whole thing it's it's all it is just always it's always fun. It was fun for us with Dobbs for two weeks. It's always fun when somebody shows up and gets an opportunity because a lot of times in the NFL, there are not many opportunities. I will say this. I hate to see that.

I got a ton of texts and calls. They're like, why can't you be more like Tommy DeVito's agent? And I was like, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. I am not italian and i don't have little fedoras and kiss my players dads on the cheeks and like everyone's like dude you should be like that guy and like to be on the field with your player pre-game pretty cool but to be on the field with your player pre-game on the phone like what could you possibly be doing who could you possibly be talking to at that

moment that is so important that you're like hold on yeah yeah like i just i can't do it like i i don't know i just i can't stand when agents try to take the spotlight like that it blows my mind but hats off to sean stiletto for finding a way to do it because he was breaking the internet on monday night football i the whole bit is hilarious and it's been really enjoyable. And, and look, I mean, Tony or Tommy,

I almost called him Tony, Tommy, Tommy DeVito. Yeah. Tony's gotta be his dad, but, or three of his uncles, but he,

he could play, you know, and, and a guy who would have had no chance whatsoever getting a chance to show he could play and then run it for touchdowns and make it a game-winning drive like it's it shows you how thin the line is sometimes between somebody who gets a chance somebody who never gets a chance and so forth so all the carnage has led to things like this uh jeremiah we will be back next week take us down the stretch here and we'll see what happens in cincinnati so great to do this again and we'll see you next week toodles