Purple Insider - a Minnesota Vikings and NFL podcast - Jiminy Christmas the Vikings allowed 52 points against the Saints -- now what?

Episode Date: December 26, 2020

Matthwe Coller and Paul Hodowanic break down the Vikings' ridiculous Christmas Day loss to the New Orleans Saints. How did they give up 52 points? Why was this actually a classic 2020 Vikings game. What does it mean for Mike Zimmer? What does it say about how the team was constructed? And who's under pressure now? Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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Get Coors Light in the new look delivered straight to your door with Drizzly or Instacart, Coors Brewing Company, Golden, Colorado, and as always, celebrate. Hey everyone, it's Lindsay Rhodes and I've got a new podcast, Golden, Colorado, and as always, celebrate. previewing games we'll get you set for the weekend fantasy with our fantasy friday episodes and we'll answer some of your questions as well so subscribe to the nfl road show on apple podcast spotify or wherever you get your podcasts Oh, welcome to the, well, Merry Christmas, everybody who likes the Vikings and follows them. Post-game podcast, Vikings give up six touchdowns to one person, which has not happened in the National Football League since 1965, RIP Gale Sayers. And they give up 52 points and uh thomas morstead the punter of the new orleans saints he was seen drinking hot cocoa and watching a christmas story on the sideline during this one as drew breeze elvin kamara and

company cruised up and down the field like they were just riding a horse-drawn carriage on a beautiful snowy Christmas evening. That's what it looked like for the offense. It was that easy. How do you throw two interceptions and still score 52 points? It can happen only against the Minnesota Vikings, who have given up now 50 points in this game for the first time since 1963 or no, since 1984, but the most points since 1963 and so on and so forth. And the incredible, ridiculous, preposterous numbers of what the Vikings defense did today pile up. And Oh yeah. On offense, they're all right they did some stuff they looked okay

uh you know there was some disappointing drives there were some good drives that happened but 52 points paul hodowanek what is going on buddy oh man i was over at my close family's house all masked up watching this game with many many many Vikings fans. And there was lots of screaming, lots of just like incoherent, I need to get up and go get a cookie. Like just, just no one was happy. I was sitting over there on the couch, just trying to put this into perspective for everyone. And man, 2020 has been a bad year. I think a lot of Vikings fans say, Oh, Christmas, this'll be a fun, fun day. We get to watch our team play and boy, it did not turn out like that. I'm, I'm excited to talk about this game. Cause there were just a lot of things that happened that I want to get into with you, but, but man, it is not a good day to be a Minnesota Vikings fan. Well, here's where I want to start.

I want to start by saying this. It was appropriate because the Vikings played this exact football game against Mitch Trubisky and lost against Mike Glennon and nearly lost against Carolina and Teddy Bridgewater and nearly lost. And they played, you know, numerous other games where they were a little better than this, but mostly like this against Tennessee, they got up ahead, you know, two scores in that game and lost against Seattle. They got up a couple of scores and lost. And the offense always found a way to be good statistically

and put up good numbers and yards per play and all those things, but yet disappoint you at the worst times, which was this game. So 52 is going to be the number that everybody focuses on and that we talk about for a long time when it comes to Vikings meltdowns. Hey, remember on Christmas when new Orleans dropped 50 freaking two points on them when they went down to the Superdome? Yes, that will be what we discuss. But I think this was a microcosm of what the season has been. And then at the end, you know, they decide to throw a 50-yard pass or whatever. Like, they were clearly running up the score and trying to get Elvin Kamara

his sixth touchdown. Usually that does not happen in the NFL. So this game could have been kind of put away earlier by the saints, but they decided to go full like tech mobile or Madden on this thing and just run up the score. Maybe, you know, it's a little getting back at them, I guess, for the playoff losses or whatever it might be. Okay. That's fine. So 52 will be the number that sticks in everybody's head, but here's what will stick in mind not only of course and we'll get into the defensive performance not only kamara running and running and running and running over them if they didn't throw a pass today they still win by 30 points i think or whatever they still score 30 points the saints if they don't throw a

single pass today that's how dominant their offensive line was over the Vikings defensive line. But there were multiple opportunities for the Minnesota Vikings to stay in this game and make this one of the most fun and entertaining shootouts of the year. And they didn't do it. And I'm not saying that Kirk Cousins is at fault. I'm not saying it's the offensive fault when you give up 50 plus, of course, I'm not saying that, but we saw all the same problems that we've seen repeatedly. We have seen, Hey, it's second down and one.

And I guess like God compels us to run the football because there are no other options on a second down in short from what you can do. Second down and longs. There weren't a ton of those today because the Vikings were moving the ball, but it's just always like we have to commit to this same exact thing. We cannot go for it on fourth down and three,

even though we know the other team's going to score. I don't care if you pin them at the three or you give it to them at the 45. They're scoring. Did you not see the first couple drives? They will score. It's fourth and three. You have Justin Jefferson and Adam Thielen

and Irv Smith is great now and Delvin Cook. And you think, nah, three yards. I can't, we just can't do it. I don't know. I don't know how we can come up with three yards to keep our drives going. And at the end of the first half, my gracious, this team has no ability since really Kirk Cousins has been here to complete the end of the first half drive with a score.

If you give this team the football with a minute left, 45 seconds left, a timeout or two at the end of the half, they are going to step on their own tails and fall flat on their faces a hundred percent of the time, almost unless they're playing Matt Patricia's team. That's the only thing. And since then they've had a bunch of opportunities to do this and have come up with nothing. And that has basically been Kirk Cousins since he's been here. So yeah, it's the defense like, yeah, of course it is, but you had a chance to play a really fun game. There was 2% chance you'd make the playoffs. All anybody ever wanted from this was fun.

And you punt on fourth and three, you hand off on second and one, you get sacked on third and four and sacked on third and five, and you screw up an end of the half drive and you took away any chance for it to at least be a really cool shootout. And it just reminded me. And of course it's the team that went to the Superbowl, but last year, San Francisco and new Orleans played this very game,

even as great as San Francisco's defense was. And they won 48 to 46. It was super fun. And I think there was an opportunity here for this game to be like that for, Hey, their guy scored a bunch of touchdowns, but so did Justin Jefferson. And he had an amazing game and instead, you know, had a good game. It's six catches for 85 yards, 10 targets. Okay. No one goes to jail, but was there opportunities to have a great game? Maybe. So there there's the rant for you. And we're going to have more rants because they gave up 52 points. But there's where it sets in my mind is why it's so perfect. Because anytime the defense has faltered this year, you just lose because you don't play

in the most aggressive or the smartest or the most efficient possible way. And then your quarterback and your offensive line combined have a tendency to let you down on key third downs. And that's the 2020 season all wrapped up a nice little ball for you. Okay. Okay. Okay. Deep breath ball.

Okay. Okay. All right. Let's get, I would, I would still argue maybe someone needs to go to jail for Justin Jefferson because yes, you can look at the stat line now, six catches, 85 yards, but several of those came when the game was already pretty much over. He really only had like two receptions for like 36 yards for a big chunk of the game. And I get it.

Marshawn Lattimore was shadowing him for a while and made a couple of good plays on some passes to him, but you still got to try to find him more. Adam Thielen ends up getting in the end zone, get some extra yardage towards the end of the game. Again, probably could have targeted him more. Irv Smith did have a nice game. Maybe he pushes us to not see Kyle Rudolph again. That's for a different podcast, but that happened today.

But I'm going to push back slightly just because i don't know if we can lead this first 10 minutes of this podcast and talk about the offensive flaws because yes they did take sacks on third downs yes they punted on some fourth downs when they shouldn't have uh but you said it they let up 52 points uh the most yards they've ever given up uh the most six touchdowns to alvin camara probably should have been seven if sean payton doesn't have a weird infatuation with tasem hill and getting him into the end zone inexplicably that one time camara could have easily had seven i was slightly pushing for them to try to score in that last like when they kneeled down just to give it to him just to just so we could

make even more history might as well just top it off with that but yes I they made mistakes on offense that have been reoccurring uh we've detailed those issues in depth and I don't know like I just don't believe we can talk about that fully until we just digest what just happened on defense because it was truly abysmal. There was never a point where you thought they were going to even get a stop. The only stops they got were interceptions from weird, like Drew Brees looks like he can't throw a football passes or off the hands of some guy. It was inexplicable. He didn't throw a touchdown, yet they the hands of some guy. It was inexplicable.

He didn't throw a touchdown yet. They have 52 points and he did not look good at all. But when you're starting three line linebackers, other than Kendrick's or other than Wilson, I'm sorry, two linebackers that really probably shouldn't be out there on an NFL field and some defensive linemen that shouldn't be out on an NFL field. And then you go up against an offensive line, the caliber of the new Orleans saints. There was no other outcome really than what Alvin Kamara did. He averaged seven yards of carry Tavius Murray averaged six yards of carry and pretty much had the same yardage as Dalvin cook. It, it was horrifying. And I saw Courtney

Cronin tweet out. They had one pressure all game long and and it that just cannot happen so here's my point I mean don't um misconstrued that I'm blaming the offense for the loss I mean the offense put up points they responded at times they even took advantage of those interceptions my point is that this has been the defense. Like this isn't anything new. Mitch Trubisky scored on almost every drive against you last week. What did you think Drew Brees and Elvin Kamara and maybe the best offensive line in football were going to do? Like you have to play the game as if they're going to score every time against you.

And that's just not what they do. And you also can't continue in every key spot that you ever have on third down to get sacked. It just every week, but you know, when it happens against the Jaguars, you still win in overtime. When it happens against Chicago, Trubisky throws you an interception and still gives you a chance. When it happens against the saints, a team that is just super talented on offense. And they're not, they don't have their best player. There are, I guess, maybe second best. I don't know what you call Michael Thomas. The guy sets the record for catches last year, and he still might not be as good as Elvin Kamara,

but they don't even have him. And they still put up 52 points and their quarterback is floating balls. Like you said, like a, like an air, you know, hot air balloon, just flying in the air. And they're still throwing to receivers wide open. I mean, the guy's throwing the ball 14 miles an hour. I mean, it looks like a high school football being thrown and yet guys are so wide open that it doesn't even matter if it takes 12 seconds for the ball to arrive 20 yards down field. I mean, is it really remarkable? So of course, of course, that was a horror show. And one of the worst defensive performances that I have ever seen. The only, there was one that came to mind for me. None since Zimmer has been here. Of course. I mean, even opening day against

the Packers was nowhere near as bad as this. They got a couple stops in that game. This game was just right from the very beginning. There was a game once that I covered where the Buffalo Bills gave up 300 yards passing and 300 yards rushing. And that was probably just as bad as this, but it's only on that level for any that I've ever covered. And I don't even know if I've watched more than a handful of NFL games ever that have been like this, where it's a guaranteed score every time, at least they got two picks so I guess maybe that takes it down a notch from like the worst defensive performance of all time it's just that it's the same stuff only against someone way better and you were never a contender and you never should have pretended you were a contender by keeping Riley Reif by keeping Anthony Harris what was the use of that you never should have thought you were a contender by keeping Riley Reif, by keeping Anthony Harris. What was the use of that? You

never should have thought you were a contender going into the season. I want to make a key point here. They trade for Yannick Ngakwe, thinking this is the piece we need to contend. Okay, let's go through who's on this defensive line right now. Afadi Adenabo, day one starter, who they thought was going to be a key piece before trading for Ngakwe. They had Jaleel Johnson, the guy that they said would be totally fine filling in that spot, and they didn't need to get anybody from free agency. They had Shamar Stephan, who the media was given an entire dissertation by Andre Patterson about why we don't know how great Shamar Stephan was. That is a thing that happened in training camp. We got this big, long explanation of how we just don't give him enough credit. I guess, well, I'm going to keep doing that after today. Thank you. And

what do you got? DJ Wanham also starting Armond Watts in the mix. These are not guys who they had to pick up off of free agency. These are the guys they started the season with. Yes. I know that Daniel Hunter is out. Yes. I know that Michael Pierce was out. Daniel Hunter got hurt on the first day of training camp. Michael Pierce opted out on like the first day you could opt out. There were free agents available. If you wanted them to sign rather than trading for Yanni King Gwe. There were guys who signed cheap deals. I noticed Logan Ryan, a corner, but they've had plenty of problems there. A corner just signed an extension with the Giants after signing a super cheap deal before the season started. They ignored a lot of

those players who were good, not great on the free agent market. And not all of them have worked out around the league. I understand, but because they believed in their own development, not because they, you know, I guess not because they didn't think whatever guy couldn't play on the free agent market. I'm sure it was because they believed, oh, well, this will work. We'll develop them. It'll work. I'll scheme around it. Mike Zimmer said, which is not true, but he said this, I've never had a bad defense before. Well, today he said, this is a bad defense. The worst I've ever had, but it's with, I know the linebackers, I know, but the starting safeties and the starting D line and two of the starting corners, Cam Dantzler and Jeff Gladney, these are guys who started at the beginning of

the season. You are missing two linebackers and two defensive linemen. If you go from missing two defensive linemen and two linebackers to the worst defense in the league, that's giving up 52 freaking points and six touchdowns to one player, then you were never remotely good to begin with. And that I think is the most frustrating thing is you ignored a bunch of very obvious weaknesses and the fact that you were skating on the thinnest of ice and if you had one injury two injuries three injuries you were going to be playing guys who belong in the XFL for the full season and that's what you have at defensive tackle at this moment and hey look you ran into a good team finally, and boy, they let you know it. So I think where it all comes together is look, if you get to one in five and you admit

it's a bad year, it's, it's really hard to make up for losing Everson Griffin, Linval, Joseph, Daniel Hunter injured Xavier Rhodes. Uh, even though he didn't have a good year last year as an NFL player, um, you know, it's tough. And so we're going to trade Anthony Harris. We're going to trade Riley Reif. We're going to trade Kyle Rudolph. We're going to kind of admit what we are. And we're going to have a tough season the rest of the way.

And maybe we're going to, you know, win four games and draft really high and, you know, start that real rebuild, go all in. If they did that, then this right here would be like, oh boy, tough season. But what are you going to do? Their draft status. The fact that they didn't do that shows you like, where were you guys? Where did you think you were in compared to where you were in reality? This game, this is where you were in reality. Where did you think you were to keep your starting left tackle? Who could have been worth something to trade for a draft were to keep your starting left tackle who could have been worth something uh to trade for a draft pick to keep your starting safety who could have been

worth something for trading a draft pick and by the way josh metellus couldn't have been worse than anthony harris has been throughout the rest of this season and you know i don't i don't know what you get um now when he leaves in free agency or if he leaves in free agency so i think all those things kind of come together today with boy we said you miscalculated before the saints made it obvious how much you miscalculated by. It was not just, Oh, this guy's hurt. That guy's hurt. And that's the only reason you give up 52 points. It's because good teams have other guys who can come in and play when people get hurt because it's the NFL and people get hurt. Yeah. And this is why I kind of want to revisit something we touched on last week was, is any of this defensive performance, Mike Zimmer's fault. And largely we decided,

you know, there's, these are bad players. Zimmer is still scheming some stuff up on third downs and okay, maybe he's just doing an all right job with what he had after this game and just thinking about that discussion a little more I want to push back on that a little bit because going through a lot of I was going through a lot of the things that you just said in your head and he like the tackling was horrendous, even for starters, Smith and Harris were not good. Those are Zimmer's guys. And like people point to, okay, well, they, they lost a lot of guys on injuries. They had Michael Pierce opt out. Like the injury they've had bad injury luck. That, that fact is true,

but a lot of teams have bad injury, injury luck. And the fact that this is what the team looks like at this point, maybe is not an indictment on Zimmer's coaching but it is an indictment on Zimmer's way of putting together a roster which I know Spielman has a big hand in that but this is ultimately Zimmer's roster in a lot of ways and I think we can point to a lot of people on this team to show this these are Zimmer's guys this is Zimmer's roster so yes maybe his coaching hasn't been a huge fault, but the guys that he's chosen on this defense,

the fact that he thinks that the guys that we draft, we can develop and we can turn into those on the fringe guys. We can just develop a Tom Johnson guy in house. We don't have to go out and sign a captain Munderland. We don't have to go sign a Tom Johnson. We trust ourselves to develop those guys internally that hasn't happened none of we haven't really had a success story along the defensive line of you know the starters are out but this guy has been here he has now

turned into a piece where okay he's doing his job he's doing good that hasn't happened so they miscalculated on what they thought they could do with the defense i i put that on zimmer they sign anthony bar to a contract extension that's a zimmer guy they both of them zimmer and spielman go in on signing cousins they know that means stuff from the other parts of the roster is going to get stripped down that was zimmer was obviously on board with that. Cook gets signed to an extension, like all these things then take away from your ability to have depth. And then when that depth is tested, I don't think we can then give Zimmer a free pass and say, well, he just didn't have the guys to coach. Yes, he, he, okay. He didn't have the guys to coach,

but he is responsible partially at least for not having those guys. Like just not having the guys is the way he decided to construct a roster. So I wanted to come back to that point because yes, maybe his coaching hasn't been as well. His, the schematics of what he's tried to do with the players he had might not be bad. And maybe he's optimizing the players that he has. and that's just how bad some of these guys are but i still think he does deserve blame for this defense at this point because he has been the constructor of this defense like wholeheartedly want to remind you to go to sodastick.com to get your original minnesota sports inspired goods there are many great designs someone on twitter recently sent their john

randall shirt and there's the can't stop the theolin hats the tech mobile throwback shirt and much more all of their apparel is screen printed here in minnesota on super soft super comfy shirts and hoodies you will love it we're going to hook you up with free shipping on your next order use the code purple insider for free shipping that's s-o- a S T I C K.com. So to stick original Minnesota sports inspired goods, code purple insider for free shipping. And I think it really shows you that when you put efficiency aside for when now, and you sign guys to ridiculous contracts, like you mentioned with Anthony Barr, but let's not forget Kyle Rudolph in this.

You sign Kyle Rudolph to a huge contract extension and then never throw him the football. This has been a pro throw the ball to Kyle podcast here, but if you're not going to, and then all of a sudden Kirk Cousins loves him some Tyler Conklin, the minute that Kyle Rudolph is out, then you don't sign them to a contract extension, but they felt like they were pushed into a corner where, Hey,

we got to win. We got to win. We can't give up any of the talent. We've got to sign. Think about this. Anthony Harris, the guy who plays next to you know, Harrison Smith has always been one of those positions where it's just like, hey, find an undrafted guy, develop him. If he's smart, if he's hardworking, he'll be able to play next to Harrison Smith because Harrison Smith is a borderline Hall of Fame caliber talent. So great. And then they decided just now, even after Mike Zimmer said at the combine, they didn't see safety as the highest paid position or should be. And then, you know, the franchise tag them and

they don't trade them away. Even though they had an opportunity because they said, oh, well, it's, you know, we want a second round pick and you're not giving up enough or whatever. You know, you look at that, like, well, what's 11, excuse me, what's $11 million for, you know, a nose tackle who can actually do anything. I mean, this is, this is the thing, like you could be in the playoffs and no, you're not going to compete for a Superbowl, but you could be in the playoffs. You could not embarrass yourself on national television on Christmas. If you sign snacks, Harrison, or, you know, somebody else who's played in the NFL before at the position instead, you're just like, Oh, we'll just move Shamar Stephan over to starting nose tackle

to play 70% of the snaps or something. That's not fair to him. I mean, he's a backup player who plays 25% of the snaps on a good team. That's what he's always been. And then all of a sudden you say, no, it's fine. Jaleel Johnson's not an NFL player. Sorry, just not, not even close. I don't think.

I think he's an XFL, whatever the next summer league comes around that's like his talent caliber and you said it's fine we'll just start him at three technique instead of how you spend your money and so in a lot of ways and the agakwe trade is just that i'm sorry you have to keep coming back to it because they readjusted riley reeves contract and move that all around to fit this guy in because he's the final piece when you're so desperate all the time to try and win and you throw efficiency out the window you end up with a roster that's got a couple of players making all the money and everybody else is guys who uh just you know can't play and part of it and you make a great point is at some point, if you believe a little

too much in your own BS, I don't know if you ever heard that saying, but like somebody who's believing in their own BS, uh, then you start thinking that if you just draft an athletic tall guy who didn't have a lot of sacks, then he'll just be Daniel Hunter and you'll just develop him and he'll be Daniel Hunter. And that's it. Nope. DJ Wanham is not Daniil Hunter. I'm just going to go ahead and say that. And, you know, oh, we could just draft fourth round, you know, defensive lineman. We'll just develop them. Well, not if they can't play. I mean, it's draft luck. A lot of building of the 2017 season is draft luck. It's Stefan Diggs comes out of nowhere in the fifth round. How are all those other receivers that out of nowhere in the fifth round how are all those other

receivers that they've drafted in the fifth sixth and seventh how are they working out how's kj osborne playing it was inactive today how's what's stacy coley up to and rodney adams and all like oh we can just you know hey we had jarius right he was like that cheap third receiver we'll just like bring in tajay sharp Like, come on. I mean, these, these things worked. Because sometimes stuff comes together. Sometimes you land on a bunch of draft picks, but then when it doesn't, you have to recognize that it didn't anybody who watched training camp could have told you that the three technique position was a major, major issue.

And they just said, no problem. That's all right. We'll just, we'll work around it. We'll coach around it. Everybody said, Hey, you know, is it going to work out to have a bunch of rookie corners that like a thing that usually works? Oh, we'll just coach them up. You know, we'll just coach them up. Okay. I mean, now look, if you didn't set the bar at being a playoff team, if you didn't make the Ngakwe trade, if you didn't keep all your stars at the trade deadline or your guys who could be traded fine. Yeah. I mean, it's today's results, not that big of a deal because it's like, you know who you are. That's where everything gets questioned. And I, you know, I also think too, I mean, it's really hard to question drafting,

right? Because drafting is random and it's weird. And like, look, everybody passed on Lamar Jackson, but thought that Josh Rosen would be better. And like, we all get it wrong all the time, but they've gotten it pretty wrong a lot recently. And it's showing up. You know, Justin Jefferson is like the shining beacon light of draft success, but you have to, you know, close your eyes and hold your nose. If you're going to talk about pretty much the last, how many drafts now? So, I mean, this is what happens. This right here is the Cincinnati Bengals under Marvin Lewis.

This is what it has become. This is the nightmare scenario. And now here's what we have to talk about, Paul. They kept Marvin Lewis on after they went over that curve and it didn't go too good. They ended up with a couple of seasons of six, 10, seven, and nine. And then they eventually moved on when they kind of hit rock bottom in your opinion. And I'll just react to what you think on this. What does this 52 point performance by the defense mean for

the head coach? I mean, that was where I was going to go next with you. And the thing I was going to point to is last year that Sunday night game, or I forget what night it was, but the, the green Bay Packer game at home, when they just get run out of their own building by the Packers. And there's a segment of the Packers fans that stay and are chanting out like an hour after the game and are welcoming the players back on to U.S. Bank Stadium like it's their own stadium. That's the vibes I was getting from this game. And that was the game that seemed to push the wilfs to the idea that zimmer might be gone

that they might want to just elevate kevin stefanski and move on they need a fresh face and this is another one of those embarrassments there's no other way to put this game they let up franchise record after franchise record alvin kamara is trending all over twitter for winning fantasy football lineups like yeah like like maybe zimmer doesn't deserve to get fired because of this and that's maybe where i'm going but when you have one of these types of losses this is when the owners just decide to do it anyway because they're embarrassed of what they just watched their team do. They they're embarrassed for this is their name behind this. And this is just what happened. They let up 52 points to a quarterback who looked like he struggles to throw

the ball at some time at some points. And like a defense that was just getting gashed over and over and over again. And the, as you said at the beginning, the coach isn't exactly the friendliest person like this, like, it's not like, Oh, but he's such a great guy. Like we can't let him go. Like, I don't know if that's what the organization is going to say if Zimmer's gone. And so I don't know if he should be fired.

Like it feels a little bit reactionary after this game to bring out the pitchforks and call for his head because we've seen all the good things he can do. But if they decide to move forward with him, we now see a lot of troubling signs. We see all the bad in-game decision-making that he has continued to do. We don't know how much influence he has continued to do. We, we see his, maybe we don't, we don't know how much influence he has in the offense, but it, it seems to be enough to where it's keeping the offense from doing what they need to be doing, at least in certain play calling situations and the way

that they want to establish the run. Uh, that seems to be from the Zimmer from Zimmer on down. And the hallmark was, even if those things are happening, he's going to have a defense that keeps you above a certain threshold. And that crumbled this year. Yes, he doesn't have the players, but the thing, the hallmark he was here for was a defense where we're just going to keep you above water. Even if I have deficiencies on the offensive side of the ball even if I have deficiencies working with my coaches even if I have deficiencies communicating with my players I'm going to have a great defense and we're going to be a good team regardless of those things those things have disappeared now so the thing that Zimmer has been able to like put up as his wall of why he's here is crumbling right now. And so I don't know how he,

I think he still could be the head coach moving forward, but at this point it doesn't look good after this game because we've talked about, you know, you just run out of time sometimes. And this game didn't exactly strike me as they were loving Zimmer and they were going to push towards the end for him. So there are lots of situations where I think that teams overreact a little bit. I'll give you one. How about, you know, the New York Giants who go into a full, complete rebuild, tear the whole roster down and they give Pat Shermer like what, two years and then they fire him and then they go to another guy who's kind of a clown. It's's like is this really the right thing to do here uh Jim Caldwell's firing in Detroit I kind

of understood it uh the year that they did it um but then they go to another clown and it could be much worse than the guy who's proven and the guy who has shown that he can win um but the thing about this situation with Zimmer is this is a different group. Like this is not the Zimmer team that was built from the dirt up to being a team that goes to the NFC championship and then sets the bar at, uh, going to a super bowl every year when you go into training camp, like this is a completely different roster than all of those guys. And you really, the focus of your team now should be not necessarily

around defense. It should be around Justin Jefferson, who is a top five receiver in the NFL in an eye blink, like he steps onto the field and all of a sudden he's a top five receiver in the NFL. And if you wanted to change your philosophy as an organization, because of a single player, it's not a bad idea to do it. It's not a bad idea to have a Randy ratio for Justin Jefferson or a coach that is really focused on being innovative offensively to get as much as you possibly can out of this superstar player, especially while he's on his rookie contract, because the value there, the bang for buck, which you get for having him there is immense.

And then you're going to have to pay him. And of course you should, and he's still going to be worth it. But these next couple of years, I mean, you have been given just a block of gold here and don't wash it away by not throwing him the ball enough. Like you said, still, I didn't feel like there were nearly enough targets for Jefferson,

even in a good offensive performance. But sometimes, and this is the reality, like sometimes the other team's going to score every time and you have to be able to be competitive or win these games. Now you expect a couple of stops in those shootouts, but when you have an elite offense, you can win these shootouts or you can be right there. And this game could have been fun, but if you're running on second one and getting stuffed in the backfield and then not converting on third and four, because you're getting sacked, well, then you're probably not going to be able to play in these shootouts. And there is maybe a mind of someone in ownership that would say,

or in the front office that would speak directly to ownership that would say, look, you know, this defense, it's not going to be great next year. There's just no way. Like I know Michael Pierce, like he, Michael Pierce is good, but come on. Like you're not going from a team that's allowing 52 points in a game to an elite defense in the snap of a finger. You need seven to 10 players on this defense. If we're considering rotational guys and backups who are good,

you need more stars i mean they lost a bunch of star players in this last offseason um so there's a lot of ways to go and you might look at it and just say look i mean the thanks for what you did before but what we need you to do in the future it doesn't look like you're up to. And they could say that. Now, I don't think it will happen. Week 17 might matter here. If they go to Detroit and they give up 50 points to Detroit and they lose to a team that's already fired their coach that has nothing to play for with a quarterback who's injured, by the way. And if Kenny Galladay doesn't play, then their number one receiver is hurt.

If this happens next week, then I think we're really having this conversation of like, is it time? Is it time to just say, Hey man, like you did a lot of great things. And I fully believe Mike Zimmer is a great defensive coach, but this isn't going to work. I don't know. I mean, I think that that conversation happens and today is the button is pushed where we have this conversation again the button was turned off after they won the playoff game and we knew that Zimmer was going

to get an extension like okay we're in the kind of hot meter all right let's let's let's shut it off let's turn it back to the blue but today I didn't even have it there going into today I just had it as kind of like a simmer you you know, like not even in the orange, but still like in the, in the mild blue, but 52 points embarrassed on national television. I mean, that matters that that matters to where you're at. And, and by the way, you still had a tiny chance at the playoffs. You were not eliminated yet. It's not totally insane to have seen this team winning too.

And seeing Arizona losing to Arizona is a majorly flawed team. It's not totally insane to have seen this team winning two and seen Arizona losing to Arizona is a majorly flawed team. So with the result that happened today, you can make all the, Hey, Daniel Hunter's not here. And Hey, you know, this and this and this and this, and I get it. And that's all fair. And it's valid. The saints are a better team than you are right now. It's all, it's all true. It's the explanations, not excuses. Like, yeah, they are explanations, but you got run out of the building. Like you, you just got your tail whipped. You didn't come up short in a 41 to 33 game. That was fun. And you go, well,

you know, okay, well, we're not there yet. This was wow. And you have the coach. I don't know who exactly he's throwing under the bus, whether it's players at the front office or whoever, but you have the coach saying it's a bad defense is the worst I've ever had. I mean, that's, those are the types of things that happen when a coach is now officially on the hot seat. And I think if they do not make a surprising move at the coaching position that at very least we're going into next year talking about like this, this team has to be good. They have to be good right away.

There is no one in five start that gets survived here is kind of the way that I would look at it. Yeah. And if I was a player, I would, I don't know if I would have a problem with Zimmer calling us the worst defense ever. Cause I mean, you just laid a absolute stinker, but I can't imagine it exactly feels great when you're when your head coach comes out and say, this is the worst defense we've ever had. And just one more thing on the injury luck. I know people point to it and yes, it has caused a lot of problems on the defense but by and large your

quarterback has stayed healthy yes for all games your running back has stayed pretty much as healthy as you can ask any running back at this point to stay healthy your top two receivers have been healthy your top tackles on both sides have been healthy your center has played in every single game you have had Anthony Harris and Harrison Smith for every game. So yes, they are missing their superstar defensive end and they're missing their superstar linebacker, but every team has injuries. And so yes, they've been bitten by the injury bug, but it's not like it's decimated their entire roster. It's decimated a few people who have a big influence, but the fact that those people

have such an influence that it causes the entire, an entire unit to crumble is, is a bad sign for the people making the decisions about that, about the roster. Well, you make a great point with the fact that Kirk cousins has been good and has, I mean, overall a good season. I know that there are people who want cousins out no matter what. And look, objectively, if you go through it, you do not usually end up with him being worth the cap space. And I get that. But this season by PFF top 10 quarterback today played fine.

You know, if you have that 2017, 2018, 2019 defense, you are right in this game. You might win this game with the performance that Kirk Cousins gave. And that's been the case for a lot of games this season where he's played well enough to win. And it has been like, you know, they run right at Drew Simeon fourth and one, they run right at Dakota Dozier on fourth and one, they, you know, do a lot of these things that we've been talking about,

fumble punts and so forth and miss field goals and all those things. But the fact that you have top 10 quarterback play this year by PFF, by quarterback rating, those things, and you still end up in this point is made especially worse when you look at the other teams who are kind of in the same predicament. Let's go through them. San Francisco's five and nine. Well, their quarterback got hurt. Okay. So Carolina is four and 10.

They're completely rebuilding and a terrible roster and their coaches way in over his head. Atlanta is four and 10, not that far away from six and nine and Atlanta fired their coach. Detroit is five and nine. They fired their coach. Philadelphia changed quarterbacks. New York is terrible and rebuilding and also had their quarterback hurt. Dallas had their quarterback hurt. Washington has had, Houston fired their coach they're four and ten and uh New England got washed up Cam Newton completely redid their roster and you know after Tom Brady those are the other teams that are in your ballpark that will be drafting right

next to you they have had it in terms of like losing quarterbacks and stuff and New England they had to play like what Jared Stidham in a game or Brian Hoyer or both in a game because of COVID. I mean, these teams have run into a lot worse when you lose Dak Prescott early in the season, or you lose Jimmy Garoppolo Vikings. Haven't run into that. They have a mega star running back. They have a mega star wide receiver. They have two tackles that play pretty well. Like this is not

a team that is just devoid of talent. They have a pro bowl safety most years. They have another $11 million safety. So you assume that he's going to be important. They got what all pro level play out of Eric Hendricks for a large portion of the season. Eric Wilson has been decent. Like this is not just, Hey man, like everything went wrong for you. I agree. I mean, when you are sitting there at the end of a season and saying that three or four players injuries are what made you a team that is now minus 47 and point differential and just gave up 52 points, like look in the mirror rather than, rather than saying, Oh, that was it well there's I mean that that can't be the only thing you look at and say well that derailed our whole season or you were

never good in the first place if you were like I said earlier skating on that thin of ice so you know I I and I think that everyone is culpable by the way like this isn't just hey it's Zimmer's fall hey it's Kirk's fall hey it's Spielman's Hey, it's Kubiak's fault for loving Delvin cook so much that he has to run Delvin cook every play. And although I kind of was chuckling a little bit like today, they get down and they immediately throw some passes and get down the field and score a touchdown. Like, boy, if you just told them that they were down when they were leading, they maybe are have a couple more wins this year. But that aside, everybody, everybody, I mean, the special teams, the kicker misses an extra point today. Come on, Dan Bailey. Like it's been, it has been a complete effort and now trying to decide, okay, when you gave away your

second round pick for a guy, you don't have anymore, how do you make up for all these issues with talent? How do you find the money when, you know, okay. Yeah. Just cut Riley reef, but that's cutting a good left tackle or NFL quality average, maybe a little above average left tackle. You are, you know, okay. You get rid of Anthony Harris. He's probably replaceable but what if you sign the wrong guy or something you know what I mean like there's there's all these things that are going to be left up in the air and this offseason I guess the way I look at it is you can stay kind of the course you can draft a defensive tackle and that might work um but stay in the course I gotta say to say, Paul, it kind of

feels like you're going to end up with a lot of the same things. And then next year we'll be determined by the same things that usually is. Will you get, you know, some injuries? Will you get some missed field goals? Will you get some good calls or bad calls? You know, I thought today they actually had a couple of helps from the referees to stay in the game. And then, you know, in Tampa Bay, they didn't. So those things even out just like missed field goals, even out just like, you know, a lot of times the good luck, bad luck, you know, final drives, they all kind of even out. So are you going to be able to do enough this off season to make this a good team, as opposed to a team that clearly has some gaping holes that has brought everybody down but if you're looking at it from the perspective that you said and you say your

quarterback is healthy and you've had two receivers who have had amazing seasons and you still are not really even close to the playoffs and have a chance of going six and ten that's that is well below where they set the bar at the beginning of the year and well below what you would guess that a team would do when they've had quarterback play like this. So I don't know, man, I think all of a sudden week 17 is interesting. I had no plans to care about week 17. Like I'll watch it. I'll write about it, you know, but now, now I think they got to play.

I don't think you can play Sean Mannion and Mike Boone and, and just sort of, Hey, everybody go out there and play a glorified preseason game. I think, I think we got to see if they play for Mike Zimmer. Don't you think? I mean, I think you have to, and I, Zimmer hates giving up any sort of game, even when they're already locked into the playoffs or locked into their seed. So even if his job wasn't on the line, I would have saw them playing super hard for this

game. But yeah, this is the last taste in Vikings fans' mouths, in the owner's mouth for how they view the offseason. If they win this game, it mitigates some of these things. Whether it should mitigate some of these things is a different question, but it will because it's the way it ended. Okay, they went out on a win. They finished seven and nine, and then people are going to start taking the holistic view, and they're going to say seven and nine. They won the last game. They did this and that, and okay okay maybe they're ready to do something next year but

if they lose this game and it goes badly that's two bad game or three bad games in a row and it's it's not encouraging so yes I think Zimmer needs it for momentum to be able to show that he can he is still the right person to take this team on the right trajectory because i don't think anyone thinks this team is devoid of all talent to be bad right away like there there is a version of this where they're good next year and they're good going into the future they have the building blocks for that yeah and so i agree totally agree zimmer zimmer needs this game to show that he is the right person moving forward. He's obviously a really good schematic person. No one is ever going to doubt what he can do for a defense,

but doubts are starting to creep up about his game management. They've been there, but they're really starting to creep up. And it's about just his overall decision-making on the field and off the field. And he needs to show that he is the right person moving forward on both those aspects. 2020 has already reshaped how we work and it's almost over. Businesses across the globe are challenged to be their most efficient, which means every hire is critical. Indeed is here to help. Indeed is the number one job site in the world with more total visits

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That's, that is the question. And I, I don't know because I've covered so many Zimmer games and I've covered so many wins and he's got a good record. And I, you know, 2017 of course is a tremendous, tremendous coaching job. Number one defense in the NFL backup quarterback going to the NFC championship overall, the NFC championship didn't go well, but you know, I've seen him coach him up and I've seen him scheme and I've seen him scheme wins like he did last year against new Orleans. And so when you see that, it's hard for me to say, okay, well,

he'll just never win again with this group because he's done it before. And he took a group that wasn't that good and was seven and nine in 2014 and turned it around. But now 2014 just seems a long time from now. I mean, you know, you look at the scoring percentages. It's a stat that I bring up from time to time, but if you scored on like 35% of your drives in 2014 or 2015, you were pretty good. Now you're toward the bottom of the league. I mean, it's just, it's changed even in, in five years here, how the game is being played. And you wonder

if it's not going to work out the same way. I'm never going to say for sure that it won't because this team has been a winner basically since he's been here, or at least in'm never going to say for sure that it won't because this team has been a winner basically since he's been here, or at least in the hunt going to the final weeks competitive. But there have also been a lot of things along the way where you go, boy, there's a lot of people who have gotten tired of that message and who have grown weary of kind of hearing the same things with Zimmer. And so it's, you know, it's going to be a real push and pull and it'll be a fascinating conversation. This was not a conversation before this game.

And now it is. And I think that that is entirely deserved. So before we wrap up, Paul, I want to point out, well, I want to do two things. Number one, I want to point out that some people did play really well in this football game for the Vikings on the offensive side. And it's just sort of like funny to say, but Irv Smith Jr., I think, played a great game. Two touchdown catches, of course, made a couple other really, really great plays. And I'm I'm ready to call it, I think, you know, like Steve Karnacki on television, the guy that does the, that did the presidential election and he was doing the playoff races and

stuff. I'm ready to call it. Irv's good. I think he's good. Early in the season. We're like, what's going on with Irv. But now that he's been the starter, he's proven it. He scores touchdowns. He makes plays. He could go down the field like he did last week. And Conklin can play like he's, I think capable of being a number two tight end in the NFL. And so I think this is it. I think I'm ready to call it because he played well. And another really ironic thing, if you're designing an NFL offense for 2020, your ideal rushing statistics in a close game, which, you know, this was not really a

close game, but your ideal stats would be 17 carries for 90 yards, 5.3 yards per carry. Like that's ideal. The way that they use Delvin today, ideal for the most part, you know, the second down and one runs, usually you get those first downs. Sometimes you don't, but other than that ideal rushing statistics, I ironically in a game where they were just playing from behind the entire way. Like that's how it should always kind of be actually efficient, throw in the football. Anyway, so I just thought that was funny. And I wanted to say that I am thankful very much on this Christmas day for all of your

work. And again, we've been using your last name because you have a job now, and I'm proud of you for that. But just all of your work on these postgame podcasts. I know that next week is our official last one, but since it's Christmas, I wanted to say Merry Christmas to you, Paul. Great, great work. And I've really appreciated, sometimes you end up sitting there and nodding your head as I rant like a crazy person for like 14 minutes in a row. I'm sorry for that, but you've done a great, great job on these postgame podcasts and I really appreciate it.

Well, thank you. Thank you for having me and trusting me to be on these postgame pressers. I would assume, I don't know how many people listen to these. Maybe it's better that you don't tell me how many people listen to these postgame pressers, but thank you for letting me on. Thank you for all the people that are here listening to me, talk about it at whatever we're at the hour mark that they're still here listening to us. So thank you.

I am also thankful to be doing this every week. I love it. Well, we will continue into the off season. We'll get you on hot routes and we'll make sure that it still carries on, but we've got one more and we will see next week against the lions. If you and I are talking about, Oh my God, can you believe they just did it again against the lions? Or if we're saying at least they ended on a nice note and so and so played well and so forth. And now what is to come in the off season? We shall see. We never really do know. So thank you, Paul and a Merry Christmas to all of you who have listened. This very podcast just this week

cleared over 500,000 downloads since starting in May. It's about 100,000 downloads a month, which has been incredible that you've given me all this support. And actually the purple insider.substack.com just cleared over 800 paying subscribers who get the this support. And actually the purpleinsider.substack.com just cleared over 800 paying subscribers who get the daily coverage. And again, just can't thank you enough. So everybody have a Merry Christmas. Just calm down, watch a couple of bowl games,

try to get over it, do what you can. And I'm sorry for everything with this team and we'll catch you next time.