Purple Insider - a Minnesota Vikings and NFL podcast - JJ McCarthy can keep rolling vs. Cowboys

Episode Date: December 13, 2025

Andrew Krammer of the Minnesota Star Tribune joins the show for our weekly hardcore preview, breaking down every important aspect of this Sunday night's Vikings-Cowboys clash. The Purple Insider podcast is brought to you by FanDuel. Also, check out our sponsor HIMS at https://hims.com/purpleinsider Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See https://pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Hey, everybody, welcome into another episode of Purple Insider, presented by Fandul, Matthew Collar here, along with Andrew Kramer, the Star Tribune, for our weekly hardcore Breakdown Vikings and Dallas Cowboys. And the best place to begin is with J.J. McCarthy, because last week, what we saw against a pretty rough defense was Signs of Life. Andrew. That's what we saw from J.J. McCarthy. All the messages that Kevin O'Connell, which seemed to be maybe the last messages he's going to tell us about in front of the cameras and stuff. But the message from O'Connell was about simplification. It was about decision-making. And really, all of that

came to fruition on the field where there were zero turnover-worthy plays from J.J. McCarthy. He made good decisions with the football. And they got ahead in the game. They stayed ahead. They didn't give the ball back, no pick sixes, no strip sacks, nothing like that, and cruised to victory, do you think that they can have the same game plan this week against the Dallas Cowboys and come away with similar results on offense? I think they can have a similar approach, yeah, because when I look at this Dallas Cowboys defense, while they've got some names, particularly on that front on the defensive line, they're very forgiving, secondary, much like Washington is. Washington has fewer names up front. They don't generate quite as much pressure on

the quarterback. So how McCarthy navigates the pocket, how he navigates what could be some quick pressures that Dallas can generate. They also blitz more than Washington does. That, I think, is going to be a critical factor in how they can, or whether or not they can replicate the success from last week. Also, how they run the football. Because Matt Iberflus running that Dallas Cowboys defense does a lot of twists, stunts, movements, the type of things that can get by, even though it's veteran of Vikings' offensive lineman Will Fries and Ryan Kelly had some issues in Seattle with some of the twists they were doing there. And the big thing, too, with how they attacked Washington was they started out on that first drive, Matt, running the ball very well. They didn't

even have a single third down on that opening drive. They have not run the ball well against teams that throw a lot of movement at them. So that is the big thing for me. And since they acquired Quinn and Williams on November 4th and Logan Wilson, I believe it was the same day, they've actually been, I think, like the 15th ranked run team in terms of yards per rush allowed. So it hasn't been horrific for them as it was at the beginning of the year as horrific for them. And I do think that this matchup is tough because the Vikings just in general don't handle what Iberfluse does up front as well as some other teams like Washington. There were a few instances of Matt Iberflus giving problems to Kevin O'Connell, even when

the Chicago defense was not very good. I seem to remember a game in early 2020. where Tyson Bejant almost beat the Vikings. It just was a really, really ugly performance by Kirk Cousins. They couldn't run the football very well. And we walked away going, what are we looking at here? That was Chicago's defense. It wasn't special. And I don't believe that they had a player of the caliber of Quinn and Williams on that Chicago team.

There were other times where the Vikings did put together much better performances against Iber Fluse. But the point being that they have enough talent in the middle of the middle of their defensive front to cause some serious issues. Now, Ryan Kelly, since he's returned, has been absolutely terrific. He is the number two graded, and I know this is in a small sample size, but number two graded center by PFF for this season. I believe he has allowed three quarterback pressures, and you can only imagine had they had him for the entire season, what the center play would have looked like versus what we had seen in the past. And this was

always the type of game or matchup, and Kenny Clark is on this team that we would go into and say, no, I don't think so. They ain't going to win this one because they're going to be able to create that interior pressure. What is different this time is that Donovan Jackson has, I think, become one of the better rookies in the NFL this year, and Kelly has been spectacular when he's been in the game. And then Will Fries, I think has had his moments, ups and downs. It often, just like usual, sort of depends on what player you're going against and what type of scheme you're going against for a player like him. But if Quinn and Williams is lined up against him time and time again,

I think there is an advantage there for Williams. Kenny Clark can still get after the passer. And Osa O'Digizua is another guy who, I mean, his 43 pressures this year. It got a huge contract in the offseason. That is their only strong point, though. They have probably the worst combination of linebackers in the entire NFL, and they might have the worst group of cornerbacks, or at least close. Duran Bland had that one crew.

crazy season, but hasn't done much since. And they are playing a guy that was on the third team for the Vikings ready steward for their entire training camp. And then he's got their highest BFF grade for all of their corners. That really tells you where they're at. I don't know what Trayvon Diggs status is going to be, but is there real fear of him? So I think if they can handle that specific matchup of the interior of their D line versus the interior of the Vikings offensive line, you are going to have time to throw. You're going to be able to run to the edges with Aaron Jones, who loves a good little pitch. So, I mean, so does Jordan Mason. Those guys, like, I think that's one of the things they do well is those outside zone pitches. I think

the Vikings should not have terror facing this defense as long as they can just hold up in that middle. Yeah, just about every stat. The Dallas Cowboys defense is second worst behind only Washington in terms of like adjusted net yards allowed, points allowed. I think only the Bengals give up more. I think they give up among the most yardage in football on both run and pass. So when you mentioned the linebacking group, that is the part that would you turn on the Lions Cowboys game from last week. That stands out to me, and Jemir Gibbs couldn't run the ball as well as Detroit probably would have liked. Obviously, we know Detroit's interior offensive line is not the exact same. And so that matchup was bad for them. But they did get a lot of

in-breaking quick throws over the middle. Just a little angle route to Gibbs, a little slant to Amon-Ross, St. Brown went for 20-some yards. They don't tackle well over the middle. They don't cover well over the middle. They don't seem to adjust to bunch releases like O'Connell likes to run, certainly, and a lot of coaches do. So I think that part, attacking the middle of the field run, they give up, I think, the second most yardage to running backs in the receiving game.

They give up the most yardage to wide receivers in the receiving game as well. So they can kind of pick their spots of how they want to attack, how they want to find completions. You started this podcast with McCarthy. He's talked about just finding completion. Well, the Cowboys give up like almost 70% completion rate to every quarterback. So I do think that is the part that they need to start with. I just don't know how well they're going to be able to run the football.

So that's the question I've got of like that's the stabilizing force in games that they've kept close. They've been able to run it well. If this game gets forced into McCarthy's hands, I don't know if he's going to be able to convert third and eight, third and 12, the way he did necessarily against Washington with such ease. See, I think that they should be able to run the ball, even if it's not up the middle, but to the edges because we saw last week the Vikings used a ton of bigger personnel. And this is a matchup to do it against. I mean, this team just at the linebacker position is a mess.

I mean, you can, if you get three linebackers, they don't even have four linebackers. If you put three linebackers on the field and have Josh Oliver blocking somebody, C.J. Ham, I thought, had a terrific game last week. Not a guy that gets highlighted a whole lot, even in the Kevin O'Connell era. But, you know, he got in last week a lot, was plowing forward, was pass protecting. And I expect him to be used again a lot. This game plan for last week looked very much like a Alex Smith 49ers 2011. It looked a lot like what Kyle Shanahan has done in the past when he's had quarterbacks. He didn't trust like Jimmy Garoppolo, where it was, hey, only throw X number of passes.

We're going to run the rest of the time. We're going to use big personnel. like these sort of throwback type of things. And if you can do that against this team, I mean, they're starting edge rusher. If Jadavian Clowny doesn't play, it's unclear there. Dante Fowler Jr. I'm like, still in the league?

I mean, it's one of the, like, no offense to him. But I mean, starting, like this is a guy they're playing a lot. And then the other guy, as O'Raco has done, I think, quite well for them, but more in a rotational role. But it's just at the edges. They just don't have anybody. to really be afraid of. So if you're taking Oliver and you're putting him out there,

if you're taking C.J. Hamm, getting matchups with these linebackers and safeties and nickel corners on these pitches and zone runs to the outside, I think there's huge opportunities to break bigger runs in this game. Yeah, I would see some potential for that as well. The perimeter I remember watching the back with the Lions game was Jameson Williams took a jet sweep down to the one yard line. You can get on the edges, absolutely, against this Dallas defense. But to go back to your point about what they changed with McCarthy,

like they've leaned even more into the shotgun. They didn't, he attempted just one under center pass in the first half against Washington. There was just one play action attempt, which was that one under center pass against Washington. And then you asked about the quickout kind of throws, like a lot of quicker first read attempts against a Washington defense that just doesn't disguise a whole lot. Dallas doesn't disguise or blitz a whole ton either, but they do those things slightly more than Washington. They try to, you know, kind of mess things up, the vision for the quarterback before the snap.

So I do wonder how much of this they can exactly replicate because Dallas has struggled against great quarterbacks. They gave up four passing touchdowns to Mahomes. They give up four rushing touchdowns, the lions. Like, they are a very susceptible defense, Matt, but how simplistic they made things against Washington. I do wonder if with the confidence built from McCarthy off of this win, can they get him back under center?

Can they ask him to focus on his feet just a little bit more? O'Connell didn't want to entertain the conversation about McCarthy any further, but I do wonder if they can start to maybe take a training wheel off a little bit because they might have to against a Cowboys defense that is susceptible in many ways, but against offenses that can throw misdirection at you like Detroit can. The Vikings just said, look, we're just going to play straight up. We know Dan Quinn runs cover three. We're going to do two tight-end seam routes from the 18-yard line

and then just pick one to Josh Oliver for a touchdown. It was so easy to see what they needed to do. but Dallas again kind of they can blur the picture a little bit more than Washington can. If you guys have been wearing hats or trying different haircuts in order to cover up for your hair loss, trust me, I totally feel you and maybe you've tried different hair loss solutions and nothing works. Well, I've got something for you then. It's called Hymns. Hymns offers convenient access to a range of prescription hair loss treatments with ingredients that work. and you can do it in a way that works best for you.

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Visit Hymns.com slash Purple Insider. That is Hymns.com. Purple Insider for your free online visit Hymns.com slash Purple Insider. Individual results may vary based on studies of topical and oral monoxide and finesteride. Featured products include compound drug products which the FDA does not approve or verify for safety effectiveness or quality. Prescription required. See website for full details, restrictions, and important safety information. Yeah, I think this will be more challenging also because the other team has an offense.

In fact, one of the best offenses in the NFL, they are not losing their minds and putting Jaden Daniels back in like Washington. And after watching Daniels, I thought, what are you doing? But that's their problem. This week, Dak Prescott's been darn good. And if this defense was a little bit better,

we might be talking about DAC in the MVP type of race. And gosh, if they had pulled off a win, you know, last week against the Lions, they certainly played well enough on offense to get a win. And there was a very bizarre offensive pass interference call that cost them as well. But this offense, it's got weapons all over the field

and we'll get to how they match up with the Vikings defense. But the point is just that you probably can't get up 14 and just be like, okay, well we're only going to throw to wide open people, not take any risks, throw the ball out of bounds, scramble, whatever. There will probably be times in this football game

where J.J. McCarthy has to drop back and make a play and throw under circumstances that are not perfectly flawlessly ideal, especially going on the road, there's going to be a noise element, there's going to be the pressure, the national TV audience, you know, that it's going to be amped up in that environment. Like last week, I mean, they were playing in a funeral parlor last week at U.S. Bank Stadium. There was no juice to that game whatsoever. It's on at noon. Like there are circumstantial things for McCarthy that are different. And I do think it's a little

bit of a test case of whether he can carry over the mentality, but there's also another box to check. Like last week he checked some very nice boxes. No turnover worthy plays is terrific. He threw the ball as accurately as he's thrown it. Something I asked him about yesterday was getting rid of the football, that his snap to release was the fastest that he had had all year. And these are all things that are progress. But the box that was left unchecked is when Kevin O'Connell sat down in 2022 after taking this job at his computer and started to draw up an offense, or maybe it was a whiteboard, I don't know, there was a particular player on this team that he designed everything around. And that guy was Justin Jefferson. And until you check that box of Justin

Jefferson going for 11 for 128 and two touchdowns or something, I don't care as much about the touchdowns. If someone else scores them, who cares? But, you know, like last week, T.J. Hawkinson, whatever. But we're talking about, like, this guy, there is no world where it's being run correctly if this guy has two catches for 11 yards. Like, that's, you're not doing it right still if that guy has two catches for 11 yards. And the one thing that I've gotten exhausted of is us asking people, whether it's McCarthy or Kevin O'Connell, like, how great of a teammate is Justin Jefferson for not like throwing stuff at you guys on the sideline? And he is a wonderful teammate. I think that's beautiful. But also, throw him the freaking ball. Throw him the ball. This is embarrassing.

It is embarrassing that you can't get more than two catches to the best wide receiver in the world. And it's great that he's not having a meltdown. If he did, I wouldn't blame him at all. But it just shows that this training wheels type of thing that's happened here is not really working to the point where you can go toe to toe with a quarterback like Dak Prescott. It's you can survive a game against a horse bleep team that barely got off the plane before they got back on. I mean, from Dallas's perspective, they can't cover anybody. Throw it to Jefferson, make it work. Stop being, stop making all these excuses and talking about all these reasons you can't get them the football. Literally anyone before J.J. McCarthy has gotten this man in the football. Everyone,

anyone. Dobbs tried to kill him, but at least he was targeting him. I mean, come on. Like, I'm tired of this. It's exhausting to hear people. I'm sorry, I'll let you talk. I'm just exhausted of this. Jefferson's so great. There was a route he ran that helped someone else catch a route. Oh my gosh, really? Put a ring on your finger for that. Like, what are we talking about? Throw him the ball. Raise a banner that says, help someone else catch a ball because of the coverage. You're going to love what I'm going to tell you. Because he did. He did do that. He was, he's great. He's great. He does everything. excuse me, we should listen to O'Connell as he talks about that, because that is all that he's got at this point is to say, look, when tight-end Ben Sims catches a nine-yard pass on the first play, and Jefferson's the only receiver on the field because it was three tight-end personnel, it's because the corner backs up into Jefferson, and that opens the void for Sims.

Like, that's the perfect play for McCarthy. Take that every single time. Do not force it into Jefferson in double coverage. He's not there yet as a quarterback. The whole thing with Kirk Cousins was like, hey, man, trust me, throw it, come on, do it, come on, do it. because he was there as a quarterback to know when to do it. And McCarthy is just not there yet. He's not there seeing defenses. He's not there

knowing what NFL Open is compared to college open. He needs to see things and throw it. And defenses do not let Jefferson get that open. They just don't. So I get what you're saying because McCarthy could take those chances. It's just the Vikings don't live in a world where he can mitigate that risk in his own head because

he's thinking about all these other things. And the two catches he had against Washington, what were they? They were the screen for 13 yards on 3rd and 12, and it was a smoke route where it was one of the only undersetter completions he had early in the game where he just kind of takes a few steps back and throws it to Jefferson who just turns and catches it. It's the most easy things for McCarthy because the quarterback is not consistently throwing with timing or in rhythm of the play of the footwork or whatever they need in their play action game.

And you talk about McCarthy's progress and your whole lead into Jefferson was perfect because you're talking about how you can't call it progress unless you're getting and feeding that guy. But so much of it is his first, him as a first read on these deep play action concept. Sam Darnold was one of the slowest quarterbacks getting the ball out last year because of these deep play action drops and he was so good at leveraging the attention on other guys or on the run game to get that ball down field. And even if Jefferson was covered, he would force that thing down there. And Jefferson would make incredible plays that we all want to see from him. But that quarterback is still riding this little, this little BMX bike for three-year-olds because that's what he needs right now. And he's just not there. And so I totally get it. Like maybe they need to force, more quicker first read, like bubble screens, whatever. But Jefferson's never been the Jamar Chase style tackle breaker, the yak guy. He can do that, you know, 15, 20, 30 yards down field and slip of safety. But he's not a guy who's breaking a lot of linebacker tackles or even press corner tackles a lot. That's more Addison, Jalen Naylor. Like, I wanted to see more

of that stuff. And then them getting the pop pass involved with Naylor, like that's the kind of stuff they need to be doing a little bit more of. And yeah, I get the Jefferson thing. But once Jefferson starts hitting. And if he does with McCarthy, then maybe we can be like, oh, they have shown a little more confidence in McCarthy downfield because right now their absence of a downfield passing game is what has just eliminated Justin Jefferson. And I suppose we could also put this on the play caller as well, that when we still see Jefferson running 28 yards down the field, it's like, all right, well, but I also think looking at the tape every single week, you're like, okay, well, that was there and that was there and that was there.

There's, you know, plenty of plays in Green Bay that I thought that Justin Jefferson should have been able to make the play. There's plays, you know, against Chicago. It's a little quick out route, and he's against a linebacker, and it's not even a good linebacker, and McCarthy throws it over his head into the stands. And you're like, well, there you go. That's a perfect play that's aligned for Jefferson. He's been motioning. They've tried many, many different things. Throw him the ball and throw it accurately and grow up, and then we can start talking about J.J. McCarthy making progress.

can't talk about it when it's just checkdowns to Ben Sims or Washington forgetting that there's a boundary corner that you're supposed to cover and allowing, you know, Jordan Addison to be wide open on a half-field easy read. Like something a little bit next level, ever so slightly, throwing it to the best receiver on earth has to happen before we're going to say, oh man, look at all the progress he's making. That's my only point. I'm not trying to take away from a solid game last week where he managed it to a victory. But if you're going to play a team that can easily score 30 points, you have to have 18 dominating or you're going to just not succeed in that game. So let's look at, and look, these corners, I mean, again,

I have to read out this thing. I don't know who Kalin Carlson is. Chavon Ravel has had a really, really rough go. He's a rookie. And was always considered a project. Donovan Wilson's been pretty bad at safety for them, too, I think. And Duran Bland has really, really struggled. I mean, I think probably when you get nine picks and a bunch of them are pick sixes, you suddenly start thinking like, oh, I have to do that all the time. That's what I see from him, just overaggressive plays. But the opportunity is right there to have a big statistical game

and really play NFL quarterback. Yeah, one more point on the defense or Vikings' offense versus their defense. You mentioned the aggressiveness that makes me think, like how often they've tried to run that fake screen to Hawkinson, where he blocks for Jefferson's leaks downfield, and they just have not been able to hit it. But for whatever reason, this is a perfect opponent to try those things. And those are the kind of plays they're going to have to make.

So let me stop right here before we go to the other side of the ball. I'll give you a couple of these Fandual props, and you can tell me what you think of them. Justin Jefferson's over under, I've never seen it this low, is 60 and a half yards on fan duels. I still want to take the under. Are you going to go under on that? Do you think this is going to happen? I actually am predicting this will happen this week. I'm going on this big rant, but I think it will happen.

and I think Jefferson breaks out this week. Yeah, I guess I'd take the over because Jordan Addison, too, has had an Achilles injury pop up this week. We don't know his status at this point going into it, but if he is hobbled or if he's not 100%, yeah, I imagine Jefferson's going to be somehow even more of a focal point than he already is just based on how they don't have a ton of other options if he's not there.

So, yeah, I guess I would take the over because all the statistics with Washington point to the over, but I would have said, or excuse me, Dallas, but I would have said the same thing about Washington, and look what happened. They blowout win, 31-0. He's got two catches. They have upped J.J. McCarthy's over under on Fandul after last week. I took a peek at this early in the week. It's gone up. 193.5 yards for J.J. McCarthy.

He averages 150 some. Very few quarterbacks average fewer than that. I'm going to take the over just because I feel like they'll have to put the ball in play with Aaron Jones underneath. Hawkinson came back to practice this week with a shin injury. should be fine. So I would imagine that this is going to be one where they will be playing such catch up like you've talked about. And I like the Vikings defense. Like they have played well. They have not given up a passing touchdown in four weeks. They have been very, very solid against opposing quarterbacks. But DAC, C.D. Pickens, like, they just played on another level. So because of that, I would take McCarthy's over just because I imagine there will be

some garbage time stuff. Well, it's really just compliments for me, because I don't know if it's going to be garbage time, if it's just going to be a good football game. It has been so freaking long since we got to watch a good football game. Like, would you, I wouldn't call the Ravens game good. The Bears game was all right. It was all right. That's a face. What's our standard?

What is our standard? If you're saying that's a good football game? We watched great games last year in 2022, but even 2023 had some great games. It did. Well, that was the thing about like the Mullins games and at least some of the Dobbs games, but the Mullins games were legitimately good. The game in Denver was Dobbs. That was good.

The game in Cincinnati. Like actual compelling. The season is over in terms of. playoffs. So compelling would be fine. It's really the Lions game is the last time that we watched a compelling football game. So just by the odds of NFL teams facing each other and Sunday night football, maybe the refs will help keep it close a little and we can have some exciting National Football League football. So on the other side, Dak Prescott's over under on Fanduos, 260.5 against the Vikings defense. Now, that is a really fascinating matchup because the Vikings defense,

well, it has been certainly better coming, really going back to that Detroit game. There's also some other factors as well, like gestures at Washington. Caleb Williams isn't really there yet. They stopped that run and there wasn't much that he could do. This is a different beast that they're going to face in Dallas. It is. It is. And one that you look at their offensive line like, They actually lead the league in holding penalties, but they got a bunch of first round picks. They got a bunch of talent, a bunch of young guys, Tyler Booker, whom the Vikings might have liked, but Donovan Jackson certainly turned out just fine.

That's the question I have, is can they get them into negative plays? Can they force enough penalties? I think Dallas has a ton of false starts, too. So they set themselves back, but they very much, as you've laid out, have the ability to springboard downfield. The Vikings have just put such a lid on opponents. Can Dallas help themselves, is my question, because they won't. need to put their foot on the gas necessarily against this Vikings offense. They can maybe just manage the game a little bit, but that's not how they play. They like to, because their

defense is so bad, too, that also contributes to it. But they turn the ball over quite a bit. So if they can help themselves, if they can play conservatively, I like their chances of kind of putting the Vikings away. But I think the Vikings stay in this game if they turn it over, if the defense sets up short fields, if special teams can play a huge role in this game. Dallas's kickoff coverage has not been great. The Vikings are just waiting to break one with Miles Price. That's an area, too, that I think could help McCarthy with some short field. So that's how I envision it.

That was much like the Detroit game, where they played such a holistic kind of three, as they talk about, the three phases football game. They're going to have to do that against Dak Prescott, 260. I would take the over because I imagine that the Vikings will manage, or they will stop the run. They will do things they've continued to do lately. but DAC is just going to be able to throw downfield like he has because I haven't loved what I've seen from Isaiah Rogers, Theo Jackson's still dealing with a neck injury, Jay Ward gave up a 28-yard to McClorin last week. So, yeah, I just, I would take the over on 260. Dak has had, I think, a very similar season to Joe Burrow last year where his defense was so bad that he put up a ton of stats. I was just pulling this up. He has this year 327 pass attempt. well behind and 85 well ahead.

So he's been, he's kind of been kirking it up a little bit where you play. So maybe they can't help themselves. If they get ahead, maybe they will just turn to Javonte. So that's my thing is that they have been losing all the time. And they've put up these stats and they look really good. I'm just not sure that they tell the accurate story of the Dallas offense because it looks amazing. But if you're throwing all the time against more conservative defenses because they're ahead and you're stacking up a bunch of yards chasing and trying to stay in games, well, you're going to look like a top offense when maybe the truth is that you're more of an average offense that keeps getting behind because of your defense and then you look like Superman, which makes me wonder, can they actually put up as many points as we're talking about against this floor as defense?

because where I feel like it really turned was with one player being added to the lineup, and that is Eric Wilson. Once Wilson came into the lineup, and they started using him as a blitzer all the time, he's been a nightmare for opponents to try to figure out, to try to block, especially running backs are having a really tough time with him. And I think you can get to DAC. He doesn't run as much as he used to. He doesn't scramble very well.

He is truly a pocket quarterback who can throw on the run. but he's not running away from you and running all over the place and make it plays like he was early in his career. So if you could slow down their run game, Javante Williams has been great. They have a very nasty offensive line. But if you could slow down their run game and make him drop back time and time again, I do think you can take the ball away from him. I do think you can sack him. I think you can throw him off with some of those pressures.

Not that he's not intellectually good enough to pick them up, but just they're good. They're really, really good. it's sort of like golf is as smart as they come. But if you get that guy coming into his face up the middle with the cross dogs and all that stuff, they did something last week to Harrison Smith, two of his pressures. One of them, they had Wilson Rush. And the other one, they had Wilson drop. And it just messed them all up.

But that's kind of what they do here. So can he get the ball to George Pickens? Because if he can, then you're in a lot of trouble. And they may use Pickens the way that Aaron Rockins. Rogers use D.K. McCaff, where they might just snap, throw it out to him and let him break 14 tackles and run for a touchdown. I could see them trying to do that as an answer to this, because I think if they have to drop back and have longer times in the pocket, that they will have a lot of trouble with Flores Blitzes. Yeah, I think trying to pick up that, that's always the key, right,

is that teams that can max protect, throw the ball downfield, generally find those throwing lanes against Flores. And Dallas obviously is very good at that. But we also see these teams just say, you know what, we're just going to quick throw to the perimeter, quick throw slant, quick throw this, that, and the other. And I do think we've seen Cashman, Eric Wilson, play very well underneath to break those things up. Obviously, Van Ginkle breaks up a lot of the screens thrown his way. And Dallas Turner has made some strides there. And you bring up Wilson, too, it makes me think about how that was just a product and a great coaching adjustment of Dallas Turner struggling on the edge, not setting it in the run game. And so on early downs out of

the biweek, they started putting Eric Wilson there. And then when Dallas comes online, suddenly they have all these options they can put and throw in there. And I think Wilson leads them and tied for the lead in sacks on the team and then has the lead for tackles for losses too. He's been incredible for them. And so he'll be key in trying to stop some of the underneath stuff that they like to do or perhaps might try to do against a heavy pressure front that the Vikings are going to throw at them. Because I can't imagine Flores is going to want to sit there and say,

you know what, Dack, sure. Take time to just let George and C.D. run down field. They're going to say, no, force the ball out, rally and tackle. like they have and haven't done well at times this year. Okay, so you mentioned the special teams, and we have to talk about this now because it's been such a factor. Brandon Aubrey is the gold

standard, and Will Reichert is every bit as good. We might see 65, we might see 67 in this game. These are two of the best. They also have Cavante Turpin, who is really, really good as a returner as well.

And the Viking special teams, the really unfortunate thing about the Viking special teams is that on a play-to-play basis, they've been one of the best in the league. They're great at covering punts. Ryan Wright's been great. Their kicking's been great. Their returning has been above average. And yet it's been catastrophic mistakes from young players holding. And then, you know, I even Tavier Thomas, who's a veteran, but it's been catastrophic mistakes a lot of times that have cost them and made it look, I think, a lot worse than it is. There is an opportunity here for them. I think, as you mentioned, the return game.

But also, they better be careful because, you know, this guy. Turpin, he can return one as well. I think that this is one of those games that's two teams that have a bunch of really good players on their team and also a bunch of really big weaknesses and it could just be all over the place. And as you said, decided by a return, decided by a super long field goal, decided by a penalty on special teams. That's how this game feels to me. Yeah, both of these offenses are set up because of their field goal kickers to be like, you know what, if you don't want to test our kickoff returner, we'll take the ball at the 35 and get 15 yards and be in field goal range for either of these guys, which is ridiculous.

So at the end of the game, that could happen. Yeah, I like the chances of Miles Price, maybe finally getting the touchdown that's so many of his teammates, and he have wanted, you mentioned the holding on Thomas. I think that was what negated the one touchdown he had, right? Was that against the Bears or the Ravens? Lyons was it? Yeah, you're right. I think it was the Lions.

Thank you. Because he had two penalties, and the other one was really, what did he do, run out of bounds and not come back in or something? I don't know. Yeah. Yeah, a few issues there was some guys. But overall, like Ty Felton, Taviere, they have played well at the gunner spots on the punt team. Ryan Wright has punted the ball very well.

I do think they deserve some attention for how they played because if they had a good offense on this team with how their defense has played, I don't know if it's reached the top five levels we all thought they might be defensively, but some of that has to do with their other phases failing them. Man, if they had a good offense with how their special teams is playing, this team could have been something. It could have been something this year. What could have been? Put it on every gravestone. of every Vikings season that disappoints. It could have been something.

But, of course, the question is if you want to toss out any other X factors here, you can. But the question is, do you think the Vikings will win this football game? I do not. And that just has to do with the quarterback difference in this one. And I picked them to lose to Washington when we found out Jaden Daniels was going to be playing.

But obviously, Jaden didn't look 100% healthy. And they get down to the two-yard line and throw three times. coaches sometimes don't put their players in the best positions all the times. But as you mentioned, Dallas is an arcade-style team. Arcade-style offense. I just, they're healthier as an offense right now. They're performing much better than Washington.

Even with their defensive deficiencies with the Cowboys, I still like their chances to put up enough points to outscore the young J.J. McCarthy. I think so, too, but I don't think it will be by a lot. I think it will be much more of a 27-20. 21 type of game where we'll see more signs of progress from J.J. McCarthy, but maybe in this one there's a pressure down. Quinn and Williams wins fast. There's a strip sack. He makes one more mistake than Dak Prescott. And you know, the thing about evaluating McCarthy, because this is the conversation I want to end with, evaluating McCarthy over the last four games.

I don't need to see perfection. I don't need to see four straight wins. I don't need to see him out-duled Dak Prescott, what I need to see is confident decision-making time and time again, accuracy, timing, Jefferson, and moments where it's on his shoulders, and it moves, and it works. Because there've been a few of those, and we've highlighted them endlessly because there's been so few. Chicago at the end, or, you know, even the drive against Chicago was pretty good to take the lead at the end of that game after he had played so poorly for the entire afternoon. But I mean, we need to see tape to tape at some point, and I feel like this was what O'Connell did for us with his conversation about like decision making and said he wasn't going to teach him fundamentals anymore, where it was like it is now

on you to lead the team, play like a professional quarterback, this whole, you're young, you're a rookie, whatever else. That's kind of over with at some point. When we get to week 14, week 15 of the NFL season, the second year where you've gotten a paycheck from the Minnesota Vikings start earning it. And I think that's a fair standard to start holding him too. Early in the season, okay, it's his first start, it's his second start, it's his third start. You should be that way. But now show pro quarterback stuff. And people have made the comparison like, oh, well, Drake May didn't play very well last year statistically. There was quarterback NFL pro stuff everywhere if you watched any of those games. He was just playing for a garbage team with the bed, a lot of things.

But, you know, we saw a lot at the end of that season. That's what I want to see. I want to see pro quarterback stuff. Now, you don't have to do it last week. No one could, anyone could have won the game last week. But when these games get a little more hairy, show it, show that there's real progress there. Yeah, what I want to know, and there are very specific things I would like to see in the last four games, well, what I want to know is how can the confidence, because so much of this seemed mental for him, right? Just in O'Connell's reference that or alluded to it in terms of the crowd noise affecting him or outside circumstances affecting him or the previous play carrying over and affecting him. So much of it is a lack, seemingly a lack of confidence in what he's seeing,

what he's feeling in the pocket. O'Connell also references how much he wants to play the mental game. And so clearly, you know, maybe too much was put on his plate in terms of seeing things and reading things because O'Connell said something this week that stood out to me about how he can simplify the game for himself sometimes in finding quicker answers and not trying to hunt things and hold on to the ball when he doesn't need to. Those are all elements of his game that are all mental. Can this confidence off of this win and maybe some good plays on Sunday night? Can that help him get better at the things that he's going to have to do? Because the specific things that need to be seen of what he can do is run this core offense. And I can hear Vikings fans yelling already

saying, well, just change the offense. Find what McCarthy's good at. He needs to get under center. He needs to work deeper dropbacks. He needs to find explosive plays downfield. That is what this offense is built on. That's what they've done very, very well since O'Connell got here in 2022, from Nick Mullins to Kirk Cousins to Sam Darnold. They have found ways to do it with different quarterbacks. He needs to get under center, which is they got away from that. It was 14 of 15 shotgun reps in the first half against Washington. They wanted him to not think about his feet. They wanted him to look forward and have conviction in what he was seeing in the defense and find the right reads.

But he's going to be able and going to have to be able to turn his back to the defense, turn back around, be confident in what he's seeing, throw with the rhythm and timing you're talking about. That is the stuff I did not see until the second half when the game was out of hand at Washington, and they got very valuable reps at that stuff for him in the second half.

Can he do that when it's the bright lights? It's Sunday night. It's Jerry World. Everybody's watching you, national television. This will be a very, very good test for him of seeing, can he keep all that noise out of his head and just operate? is outside of a noon game against Washington, as you mentioned, with no juice, he has not done that very much.

Yeah, he has not. And that's why we need to see those steps forward, I think, this week. And there's a good opportunity against a defense that is very, very poor overall in Dallas. So we will see where it goes, and then we'll talk about it some more. Isn't it crazy that every game, this game is going to be, like, what is this, eighth game? so that's like one, what is that, like 16% of the evaluator, that's not the right. Is that the right math? Like 16%? Whatever it is. It's like, think about how few games there's been. Yeah. So of the evaluation, like the piece of the pie that this is, is still like a large chunk because we don't

have enough reps, enough performances, enough games, then that every one of them seems absolutely huge and it is going forward. How this is one-eighth of his career on Sunday night. Yeah, absolutely. Absolutely, because you're right. And this should be Halloween of his rookie year in terms of experience. And we're here now at the end of his second year. And he's only just getting to this point, which is why people are so frustrated, which is why there's this lack of patience. And look, the Vikings made a $300 million bet on this roster and put all this cash into it because they thought it would go better. And obviously, it has not. I was going to make the point that it has not been lost on me about five times that O'Connell has mentioned. You know, it hasn't been the typical standard we've set in the past for explosive plays. You know, like, looking at you, kid. So off we go to Dallas. Thank you very much, Andrew Kramer, the Star Tribune.

And we'll do it again next week, no matter what happens. Football. Football. Thank you.