Purple Insider - a Minnesota Vikings and NFL podcast - Kevin O'Connell pushed all the right buttons against the Patriots

Episode Date: November 26, 2022

Matthew Coller and Brian Murphy get together to break down the Vikings' win over the New England Patriots and what it says about Kevin O'Connell's ability to adapt. Plus Kirk Cousins was introspective after the game about his 2022 season and the way he's been supported by the team. Where is the bar set from here on? Plus fan questions about the Super Bowl and extra points. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Hello, welcome to another episode of Purple Insider and a Monday morning Murph on a Friday morning. And let us begin with last week, certainly, or well, five days ago, a punch in the gut for the Minnesota Vikings, Murph, that they bounced back from and jumped right back on the Murph train. You had been pushing this team has a great culture. It bonds together. It finds ways to win games and then you know they planted a serious seed of doubt in what you have believed about this team when they lost to Dallas but bounced right back against the New England Patriots in a game where look this is important

this is important for everybody to hear I always have the same standard all the time, right? So when I look at the way that they won last night, I say that is a really good win for them because of how they won. 300 yards passing, an 84 QBR for Kirk Cousins, the ESPN stat, his best of the year. They drove their success with their offense. It wasn't one of those, oh, opening script, touchdown, and then they no-show after that. I thought it was their best performance, also considering the circumstances, and we could talk about the defense at times. But that one was the offense that we've been looking for amidst the inconsistency throughout the season. So your thoughts, Murph, on the Vikings beating the Patriots? Well, to that end, too, I mean, they weren't just facing any other team. They were facing a team

that had allowed their previous opponents a combined six points. One of the best defenses in the league. We saw how they struggled just Sunday against one of the best defenses in the league. And then we praised Bill Belichick and, you know, he's snide and he's rude and he's short and whatever, but he can be because he's got six rings and he's been doing it for 23 years and he's as good as anybody at scripting a game plan to exploit a team's weakness and opponent's weakness and do it in a way that, you know, he doesn't have Tom Brady anymore, but somehow Mac Jones was able to put together one of his most productive games yesterday as well. The Vikings came up with big plays at big moments, at special times,

as we've been saying all year, special teams. You know, Nwongu's kick return right there, again, probably the biggest play of the game because of why it answered, coming out of halftime, what had happened. The defense making big stops late in the game when need be. Kirk Cousins making big throws to Justin Jefferson coming up big again despite being draped in double teams. Finding Adam Thielen in the back of the end zone for the go-ahead score and how about the fact that I didn't think Cousins was going to survive much longer

the way they played on Sunday in terms of their pass protection and what do we see he had relatively clean pockets most of the day I think there was one sack didn't seem like he was under duress I give Kevin O'Connell and his staff a ton of credit for turning the page quickly emotionally but also devising and designing a game plan that allowed them to do things that they weren't even close to doing on Sunday and doing it on a national stage with the scrutiny tightening and the stakes higher. I mean, we said the Buffalo victory was a signature win.

I think that was their most entertaining and improbable victory, but I think yesterday was probably their most important one of the season. And I also thought that it was their best from the perspective of you didn't fall down by 17 points and then have to desperately scramble and need a bunch of crazy breaks. I mean, the Patriots made mistakes that helped the Vikings, and those are definitely breaks for you. When you punt the ball away after a lifeless possession and then they knock your kicker down, that is a good break for you.

But then they punished that mistake. I think there's a difference between a completely lucky, weird, totally bizarre thing and punishing a mistake, which they did last night when they had second life because they could have just gone three and out again and punted again. And by the way, Ryan Wright, one heck of a punter. I mean, he averaged 50 something yards per punt, all three of his punts last night inside the 20 yard line, pinning the Patriots back on a number of occasions. So it took kind of everybody. It took a big sack at the end of the game. It took the kick return, like you

mentioned, that, I mean, this team always seems to follow a similar arc, but I think the difference between someone like them and somebody like the Patriots is they have playmakers. I mean, the Patriots, their best playmaker hurt his shoulder on the first play of the game, Jacoby Myers, but he's not like a real superstar wide receiver like a Justin Jefferson. And so you look around and you go like, well, they don't have a Delvin cook. Didn't break one last night, but they don't have a Delvin cook who can run for 80. They don't have a receiver who can beat double coverage. They don't have a side for Matthew Judon. They don't have a receiver who can beat double coverage. They don't have a side for Matthew Judon. They don't have a ton of playmaking guys like a Micah Parsons who beat them last week.

So I think that was really the difference here is that, yeah, the Patriots played a pretty strong game against you overall, but it was your playmaking guys who came through at the end. And that's kind of what they've had to rely on all season. And as we look forward for the rest of the year, they play a lot of teams like that, Murph. I mean, this is like we wanted to assess when we got to the end of this little section of the schedule, and you definitely took a big smack to the mouth against Dallas, but the rest of it was showing that you can play with these good teams because of the playmakers that you have.

And not, you know, not failing to rise to the occasion. I feel like they last year, I think, what hampered them so much because it was it was if you think about it, a lot of the games were similar down to the wire. One score, a particular play at a particular moment, and the whole game changes its tenor. Well, while they were struggling to come up with those moments, probably because, you know, they weren't thinking, they were trying not to lose. They were coaching not to lose. They were playing not to lose their jobs. They were apparently playing not to get yelled at by the big, bad old man on Monday morning.

That's obvious that this has turned around to, they are making big plays at big moments because they feel like somebody's going to step up. You know, I think across the bench and in the locker room, there's got to be a pervasive feeling of, okay, if I'm not having my best game and I'm being taken away either by the other team's scheme or just a lack of opportunity, somebody else is going to step in for me and make a play on defense with a key stop, a key tackle,

a key turnover, a key sack, special teams. As you mentioned, Ryan Wright, these are things that are not sexy to talk about, but every week we've talked about how this guy seems to put other teams in the toughest position possible to mount a drive. And over the course of a game, that stuff adds up because for every possession that you can pin inside the 20, I mean, the odds are they're not going to go 85 yards every time to score or even get into a field goal. But if you're shanking punts or not making plays downfield in terms of coverage, then you're setting up teams near midfield. They're going to have an easier opportunity to score. So and by the way, if he's not a lock for the Oscar for best dive of the season, he's certainly among the nominees.

Because, yes, he was legitimately run into late in that third, I think it was the fourth quarter, to set up that, you know, as you mentioned, the Vikings went for the kill after that. That's what punters got to do, too. I mean, even though he's, you know, 6'8", 380 pounds or whatever he is, he looked like he had been steamrolled as if he was a preschooler, but that's what punters do, right? I just feel like they're confident because they know somebody's going to step up

and do something. They have to be incredibly confident in Justin Jefferson. I mean, look at, you know, we can get into more of what he's been accomplishing in his first three seasons. It's Hall of Fame material already. And, you know, New England had a laser beam on him all day and he still was able to come down with catches. If not as contested as Buffalo, pretty, pretty darn close. And then right after the, the running into the kicker, I mean,

cousins throws a dime to Jefferson over the middle. He takes a huge hit from the safety. All the attention is on Jefferson in the red zone. Suddenly, Cousins has got great pass protection. He's able to let the route to Thielen develop in the back of the end zone. And as hobbled as Thielen always appears to be, the guy just shows up in the red zone and makes plays. It's a great one-two punch as far as the receiving threat.

I think – I just feel like – and I've been saying this since, like, early to mid-October. There's just a feel and a sense around this club that good things are going to happen. I know people are scared about that because there's always an inevitability to that, that it will – it'll go great until it just doesn't in January. But I think you should – there's a grittiness to this team. This isn't the 15-1 Vikings of 98 that just steamrolled people

and laughed all the way to the NFC Championship game or even the Favre year of 2009 when they went 12-4 and sort of ran his momentum all the way into New Orleans. This one feels a little bit more like a collective effort to me. Like there's a lot of different reasons this team is nine and two. And it starts with with Cousins and the confidence that the team has in him, even though his numbers aren't as great as they have been. It starts with Justin Jefferson being, you know, I don't think anybody

thought he'd be one of the three best receivers in the history of the game so far, but he's already notched that. He's got six games left to build on that this season, and he's got probably another 10 years to build on his legacy. And then Kevin O'Connell. I mean, you can't say enough about the job that he's done to get this crew to rally and also believe in him with not a very long resume. And then now he's got another nice notch. He takes he takes a win, a key win from, you know, the Zen master, as we call him, and a guy he played for as a third string quarterback. I mean, it's charmed all the way through. They just have to maintain momentum for the next seven weeks, and they're setting up well.

Yeah, so some statistics that are kind of telling about Kevin O'Connell's game plan. They ran play action 16 times and straight dropbacks 22, which is the highest percentage, I think, of the entire year where they were running play action, which was a big part of his plan. He mentioned in the postgame that he wanted to set up the play action passes because he felt like that was part of the protection plan. And even though Cousins was pressured still 39% of the time,

which is above average and even above his season average, so he was getting some pressure, he was really terrific under that pressure, which, again, we talk about is not really sustainable, but as far as an individual performance, he went 13 for 14 with 168 yards under pressure. And the only blip was his interception. So that was as good as it gets for Kirk cousins facing pressure. They threw a lot of short passes, but they hit on their three deep passes. So it's kind of interesting that their short game made up 75% of their pass attempts, which again speaks to the adjustment that needed to be made for them to deal with the pressure that they were going to face. So they flustered the Patriots by getting the ball out quick and throwing three out of every four passes

short. But when Cousins did throw the ball over 20 yards, he went three for three. And if that's who they're going to be as their identity is from here on out, especially with Christian Derrissaw injured, but also an interior that is not going to get better. Like Ed Ingram was still getting beat at times last night, but it's almost like that Cowboys game. And somebody asked about this weeks ago. I thought it was maybe one of the best questions I've gotten all year about like, does a loss act as a wake-up call sometimes? And I think that the Cowboys one did for the deep developing routes that Kevin O'Connell has wanted to have all season long to say, you know what? That's just not in the cards this year.

And I judge a lot about a coach by how you adapt to when things went wrong. And as they won game after game, there was almost no reason to be like, oh, well, I should change some things about the offense. But after Dallas got after them the way they did, like, okay, we can't let that happen again. And I mean, that's the true mark of a coach right is not letting it happen again and coming out with the game plan that they had against the patriots right it's about recognizing the talent you have and the talent level you have and the ability

to uh leverage that into sustainable drives uh points on offense, and then on defense. You know, how are you, the Vikings are never going to be a shutdown team. So you're going to give up yards. You're going to give up plays. When are those plays? What are the third down conversion rates? Are you going to come up with a key turnover, a key sack at the right time? And they always seem to do that.

You know, if there's a third and four, there's a sack. And suddenly it's third and 16. and that team is probably punting and that seems to happen a lot in the second half but you know when the defense may be ground to a nub or you know they've been bending and bending and bending and you feel like that that breaking point is there it hasn't been there yet so yeah yeah heat for him for him especially the protection and I know I read your story this morning you got into it a little bit more uh with the protection, and I know I read your story this morning. You got into it a little bit more with the numbers, but I was really impressed that the biggest plays that they had to make, Cousins probably had to clean his pockets.

I mean, that throw to Thielen. I mean, he was back there. He almost had happy feet. He was dancing. He was dancing. He looked over at Jefferson. He was double teamed. He knew as O'Connell and Cousins

were talking about that play stubbornly being called all day long. It just wasn't there because he checked out. Finally, it was there. O'Connell said it was there in the headset. And sure enough, I mean, he put the right amount of velocity on that ball too, to get it to feeling in the back of the end zone and not have it broken up. But he did it because he had time. And so the line came up when it needed to, time and again, to create opportunities for Cousins to hit down the field. And it just didn't feel like he was – I don't think he was under duress the way he was against Dallas where he didn't know where the hits were coming. I mean, on the first possession, the strip sack with Parsons

pretty much set the tone for the day. So that is a key, key development moment for O'Connell as well, because it not only happened after your worst loss of the season, sort of a historic loss. I mean, the Vikings hadn't lost that badly at home since 1963. You do it on a quick turnaround on another national television stage against, you know, arguably the greatest coach of our generation in the NFL. I mean, you can't ask for much more than how the Vikings seem to respond to every teetering moment where this could have really been a psychological blow if they had lost

yesterday, no matter what fashion they would have lost it in. I think most people were thinking a lower scoring game. Either way, it would have fed the doubters and it would have been rightful if they hadn't come out with a home victory. They had to answer, and they answered pretty well. So I think they're going to take a breath here, obviously. Three games in 12 days is an awful lot, and the emotional swings that all of them have been from the time they got to Buffalo until this morning, they packed almost a season's worth of drama, adjustment, humbling, and accomplishment into three games. So I think the challenge is going to be now coming back off of this.

You're not in crisis mode, football mode. We've got to get back on the field and atone as quickly as we can. Now they're getting a breather. You've got the Jets coming into town, and some guy named Mike White, I guess, is their quarterback. So I don't know what that's going to be like. Then you have the Giants. They seem to be, you know, a paper tiger, as it were.

The Colts are a running joke. And then you got your, you know, a trip to Detroit. Who knows what team's going to show up there? And then, you know, Green Bay and Chicago just seem to be mailing it in. So, I mean, what other better scenario would you have than what they've got coming up for them? And, you know, I think the key going forward is, you know, when will Christian Derusaw be ready, if at all, in the near term? I think that's worth scrutinizing because he did come back pretty quickly

after that initial concussion. But, you know, 10 days is an awful lot of time to let some nicks and bumps and bruises heal. So, you know, if you just said a month ago they're going to play that three-game stretch and they come out 2-1, I think everybody would have been satisfied with it. But it's the way those games unfolded and the emotions that came out of them. I think that they learned more about themselves in the last three games than they may all season, at

least until the playoffs. Yeah. The, the idea of, can they keep winning like this when it was a bunch of teams with losing records? It was dubious. But the Patriots, not a great team, but a good team with a winning record. And Buffalo of course is a great team, but a good team with a winning record. And Buffalo, of course, is a great team with an injured quarterback who can still make amazing plays like he did. Sorry to rub this in, but the throw to Stefan Diggs was absolutely absurd at the end of that game by Josh Allen. And that's the team that you found a way to beat in their house in Buffalo. And I think that the results at the end of the three games, they would mostly say that you're for real and that you're a Super Bowl contender. You were outscored in those three games overall because

of the 37 point loss. But I think that it's every season is kind of a journey, right? And if you bounce back the way that they did, it's just increasing that belief level in themselves and the journey further bonding people together. Because a 40-3 loss and then a no-show again twice in front of the national stage could have been one of those, okay, actually everyone was right, we are frauds, and let's point fingers at each other. By the way, I've never said that. Some people have said, oh, you thought they were fraudulent. No, I questioned a lot of wins against losing teams

as far as their overall strength and their numbers. I never thought they were fraudulent because they're going to be in the playoffs, and if you're in the playoffs, you have a chance. Now, though, the rest of the season, I think, isn't just about, it's not the prove you're for real or prove you're not going to collapse. I think it's really go chase the one seed. Like, make this one of those years, because you're off to a start that can be one of those years,

like you mentioned, 2009 or 2017 or or 1998 where they have a chance go chase that one seed because if you get that your odds of getting to the nfc championship shoot through the roof in comparison to even being the number two seed uh but i did what i wanted to circle back on two points though murph uh last night kirk cousins said about kevin oConnell, Kevin has empowered me so much, which I think is what everybody was looking for when they hired Kevin O'Connell. And it's like everything that was promised about O'Connell. Okay. He's not exactly Sean McVay for offensive genius, but I think last night was really him sort of raising his hand and saying, Oh, I am an offensive mind as well. But a coach that is empowering his quarterback that does not come across like an egomaniac, which you really do have

to praise in this league, uh, who is willing to make adjustments and who is getting the ball to Justin Jefferson and even ways that, um, surprise me at times. I mean, I think that he has checked off every single box and then galvanized the team the way that he has. But I guess I wonder what you think of that relationship that they have formed here, because I think it was important in them coming out and doing what they did, and that some of this can carry over as far as the rest of the season goes. Well, I thought it was fascinating just reading the quotes, how they kind of dissected the touchdown pass to Thielen. I mean, you know, they were literally letting us behind the curtain, which is rare, on how, you know, O'Connell had seen that look and wanted to

get that look and that play together throughout the day, but Cousins never got the look he wanted in the coverage, so we checked out of it each time. And then finally, at a very, very key moment, Kocano was able to convey to him, look, it's there, take it. And that's, I think, empowering. I mean, I'm not sure, you know, Zimmer's not calling, wasn't calling the plays anyway, but I rarely, you never got the sense that Zimmer totally trusted Cousins, and that goes back to when they signed him I don't

he was not a fan of the signing he made it clear he was you know he had a very prickly relationship with Cousins that came out in various fashions either through words body language action or what what Zimmer didn't say about Cousins at particular moments. I mean, these guys have really, you know, look, they're both quarterbacks. I mean, you know, O'Connell isn't that far removed from being on the field as a player. I mean, he was a marginal player, but he knows how to play the position. He knows the demands of the position. He knows what it's like to be in that room and feel somebody take the heat or get the credit. The relationship, the symbiotic relationship between a head coach and a quarterback because he's essentially an extension of the coaching staff,

certainly on the offensive side of the ball. And it's been fascinating to watch the other players and Cousins' teammates sort of close ranks around him, you know, draping him in chains on the airplane and getting him shirtless. I mean, I don't know if Cousins could look any daddish, any more daddish than that. But I think that's part of the charm of that as well. I think they realized, you know, he is this milquetoast guy from, you know, small town Michigan. And, you know, he's got a smile on his face and he doesn't seem to let a lot of things, you know, you've got to give Cousins some credit, too, for as boring and as stale as he may appear to be.

He also doesn't let a lot of things ruffle him either. He never seems like a guy that loses it on the field like a Brady would. If his protection were not as good as Tom Brady is accustomed to, he'll let his players know it on the bench. I've never seen Cousins lose it on the bench with his offensive lineman or even his – I mean, he's had a couple of tense moments with Thielen and maybe Stephon Diggs here and there. But you never feel like, you know, he's – it's not Cousins versus the rest of the team or the rest of the team versus Cousins.

Certainly this season. I mean, I think they've realized this is our guy for better or for worse. And, you know, we need to build him up. We need to protect him physically, mentally. And an answer if he's struggling, we can come up with plays and not let the weight of the world fall onto Cousins' shoulders, which it seems to have happened in this market since the day he got here. Suddenly, he's not as statistically proficient as he has been, but he's winning games, and he's

winning games at big moments with big plays at big moments. I don't know what else you can ask for him at this particular point, but in January, he has to prove it because, again, all of this is going to fall for not if he walks into lincoln financial field and throws three picks in his sack six times or if he ends up in dallas and lays an egg people are going to want to see this all the way through but i think you know mentally i don't think you've seen it i haven't seen a quarterback head coach relationship this tight in this town maybe since mike t Tice and Dante Culpepper, because clearly Childress didn't get along with Favre, Tavares Jackson.

You know, I don't think Zimmer really ever got along with any of his quarterbacks. They were just sort of a pawn in his defensive mastermind, and he certainly never dealt with a quarterback as financially empowered and statistically proficient but not as successful as Cousins. And that was a clash of, you know, it was almost a power struggle between the two of them. So you don't see any of that with O'Connell. And I think the word empowering is almost like a bookend to the culture of fear comments that came out after Zimmer was fired. It's like we were in fear of our our leader and now our leader is empowering us.

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No, yeah. I mean, Zimmer and Teddy was definitely a thing as far as them being close. That's true. And I think he was almost like grieving when Bridgewater went down with his knee. And that also plays into the what might have been, which always leaves people wondering about how things could have changed here. Right. But a brief flicker, really,

when you think about the history of coaches and quarterbacks here in Minnesota, I mean, that is really like a blip. And even with, you know, Dante, where it just didn't last all that long, it is just something maybe to keep in mind. I don't know for anybody who's in a leadership position about empowering people that work for you, but also how everything that you do sets the tone for everyone else who works for you. So everybody on the Vikings, every player works for Kevin O'Connell in a way. And he set the tone with Kirk Cousins really from day one of like, this is our guy. We're building the offense around him. And they started off the season leaning into Kirk Cousins in a lot of ways beyond just saying it, but actually passing more often, things like that. And there is growing pains that have happened along the way,

but it really was an offense built to pass the ball with Kirk Cousins from day one. And then the way that O'Connell has acted toward him, and I think it's a quarterback handling a quarterback has been valuable here because I think he understands when things go wrong. Whereas I think Zimmer was just like, things went wrong. Like, I don't care what happened. You screwed up or that it didn't work or go do something, go do something. They pay you all that money, go do something. And when that's your attitude, that's everybody's attitude, right? As opposed to if you're the leader your attitude is really uh of encouragement of cousins i think that that does matter but on the statistical point

it's important to me that they won with great passing statistics because if you're talking about the playoffs that's how you're going to win and that's where i wanted to go with this murph is uh justin jeff Justin Jefferson is already putting his name among the greatest of all time. And he had done that in his first two years and then followed it up by establishing himself, I think is the league's number one wide receiver. And certainly one of the greatest players, if not the greatest player I have ever covered in person. I don't know how to further contextualize Justin Jefferson other than just pointing at it. Like in the way, as you being a Detroit native, with Barry Sanders,

where they had to eventually just run out of ways to describe Barry Sanders to people. Just like, I don't know, just watch the highlight reel. It's unbelievable. And week after week, this man gives you a chance to beat any team in the national football league because he is just unstoppable belichick threw everything he could at him and could not slow down justin jefferson i i don't i don't even know how else to put it it's it's you're watching something truly historic here with jefferson and there are some folks on twitter you know there's always folks on twitter who are like oh you know randy, Randy Moss, Randy Moss. It's like, I don't know. I think you got

another one. I think you got another one in Justin Jefferson. Yeah. There's an emotional connection in this town to Randy Moss, I think, because he came out of nowhere and changed the way the game is played. Certainly the way it's defended in the secondary. And also because he was a rookie on that 98 team and, you know you know, three, two of his first four seasons, they were in the NFC championship game. So Randy Moss changed the way Vikings fans, I think, feel about themselves and felt about their organization is we've got a dominant player and we're the dominant team. Jefferson's been a little different in the sense that it's been an uphill climb and, you know, he, he was highly touted coming out of the draft. He did play for LSU. It's not like he was off the radar as, as, uh, Moss was. Um, I think it comes down to desire. Uh, I mean,

it's one thing for you to say, I want to be the best. I want to be the best receiver, uh, in the history of this franchise or the league. I don't think he's come out and said it that directly, but he's made it clear that he wants to be, uh receiver in the history of this franchise or the league. I don't think he's come out and said it that directly, but he's made it clear that he wants to be in the conversation. And, well, okay, then go out and do it. And go out and do it while every team is out there trying to stop you from doing that and come up with big plays at big times and maintain possession.

I mean, the catches that he's made, a lot of receivers may be able to grab that ball, but as they're coming down and getting assaulted on the way to the turf, they're not going to hang on to it. Jefferson finds a way to come down with the ball and maintain possession on some of these contested catches. And he's responsible, as much as Cousins was, for Thielen being open in the end zone and to be able to make that play because they had all eyes on him.

So, look, if you're number two behind Jerry Rice in any category after two and a half seasons, you know, what else can you say? I just – there is no ceiling for this guy, but he also has the right attitude about it too. You know, Randy, for all of his beauty on the field, was a firecracker to handle off of it, and Jefferson isn't that guy. At least he isn't yet. I don't see him taking on any parking ticket meter maids out in downtown Minneapolis anytime

soon or squirting officials with a water bottle or mooning the fans at Lambeau. I don't know if that's in Jefferson's future, but perhaps it will be. I just think he is a unique specimen, and we may not see his likes again in this town, and I think the reason people are so protective of Moss is because there's an emotional connection with him and what he meant 25 years ago. Just praising Jefferson and saying he is better than Moss doesn't mean Randy Moss is a failure. I think some people, it's such a binary thing for some people that they can't separate the two. It's like, it's got to be one or the other, not necessarily. And, you know, let's see what Jefferson can do in the post-season.

I mean, Ramas had his moments in the post-season. Jefferson really hasn't been able to flourish yet there. So I, yeah, I just enjoy the fact that you've had two of the preeminent receivers in the history of the NFL and, you know, you're only three years into the Jefferson ring. So don't, don't get caught up in who's better, who makes more of an impact. Enjoy what you had with Moss, and keep enjoying what you have in Jefferson. And with Moss, there was a definitive attitude to him that we learned about more in that documentary about why.

With Jefferson, it's not there. There's no defensiveness about Jefferson. There's no, there's no edginess about him. It's like, I expected this and I do it. And it's very interesting to see. So Murph, just one word answer here. How many wins do you think the Vikings end up with? What do we have? Seven games left? Six. Six. I'm going to just say, I'm just going to spitball and say four and two. So what does that get them? 13? And I'm not even looking at all the games and go, I just, it's six games. I'm pretty sure they'll win four of them. I'm not sure

which ones, but I'd say 13 is the baseline. Yeah. I think there will be some, some other blips from here to there, but, uh, they have a chance to chase that one seed. So, uh, things just got ramped up on the season after last night, Brian Murphy, a Monday morning Murph on a Friday, always appreciate your time. And we will talk again next week. Sounds good. All right, let's get into some of your fans only questions. We will start off with Don here. If Kirk in parentheses, Kirko chains cousins wins a Superbowl this year.

Is that enough for him to get in the Vikings ring of honor? As I still don't see him fully embracing Minnesota as his favorite beloved team. He just follows the money. Uh, yes. Oh gosh. Yes, absolutely. A thousand times a zillion times yes whoever is quarterbacking the team that someday wins the super bowl for the minnesota vikings will one gazillion percent chance end up in that ring of honor if it was case keenum and they moved

on from him but he got them the ring they would have put him in the ring of honor if it was case keenum and they moved on from him but he got them the ring they would have put him in the ring of honor but especially kirk cousins who made multiple pro bowls let's say that it's this year that he wins the super bowl multiple pro bowls before this great statistics lots of yardage i mean when you look at the all-time wins for quarterbacks at the Minnesota Vikings, which I understand is kind of limited because of the number of quarterbacks who have come and gone. But I think what he's third, is it Fran Tarkenton and then Tommy Kramer? And then now Kirk Cousins is ahead of Dante Culpepper and his short career in Minnesota.

Yeah. I mean, you put the, all of that together. Yes. He would be 100%. I don't think that there is any question about it, especially how long it took, how long he was a Minnesota Viking. I mean, we are now five years into Kirk Cousins being a Minnesota Viking. That's a long time to be the quarterback of this team. And I think that maybe sometimes, you know, the outside perception, social media and all that can kind of get caught up with, you know, this, this group doesn't like Kirk, this group does like Kirk.

And it never really felt like he was fully bought in or that he was fully a minnesotan or part of the team but you know maybe what we're seeing this year is that you kind of got to have the leadership buying into him for him to buy into a leadership role if that makes sense and the whole team this year has gotten behind kirk cousins and done everything they can from encouraging him to push the ball to Justin Jefferson, to wrapping the man in chains, to celebrating him after games, to making fun of the primetime narrative, which I saw that Kevin O'Connell was doing. They've done everything they can to try to get the most out of Kirk Cousins. And I think that his comments after the game, where he was talking about feeling like Kevin O'Connell has had his back and has believed in him and has pushed him. I mean, I think that, you know, that has changed some of the narrative. You know, a lot of it is when you win, all that stuff happens. And when you win all that stuff happens and when you are 500 it doesn't so they've won this year uh

but i think that you have seen a different version of him at the podium when he's talking to the media uh even a different vibe from kirk cousins and one that has been you know maybe more endearing to the fans and again winning is endearing right you could be whatever more endearing to the fans. And again, winning is endearing, right? You could be whatever jerk you want to be a lot of the times and win in sports and people are going to love you. Uh, but all the things that have gone along with that this year and the way that his teammates have acted toward him and his coaches act toward him this year, I think has, you know, that, that carries over to how the fan base feels about him. It carries over to how he feels about Minnesota. And if he wins the Superbowl, it's going to take some kind of run through the playoffs,

some kind of performance from the quarterback, like we saw against new England, but there's going to have to be four of those or three of those to win the Superbowl games like that, where he makes big throw after big throw. If that happens, then, oh yeah, he will be in the ring of honor without question. All right. Next question comes from at M Zilliazzi on Twitter. Are you still pounding the table for the Vikings should have drafted Mac Jones instead of Christian Derrissaw? Well, first, that is what we call in America, I think, a loaded question. When the Vikings decided to trade down and draft Christian Derrissaw rather than picking with their own pick and taking Mac Jones, they passed on a golden ticket in the NFL, which is to have a quarterback on a

rookie contract. And if that quarterback turns out to be good, and I think it's been proven in recent history that it doesn't even have to necessarily be great, but even good, you give yourself a chance to build a monster roster around that player during their rookie contract. It doesn't always work, but it certainly has worked a lot. Jalen Hurts and the Philadelphia Eagles are a pretty good example of that right now. How about we go through teams that have made the Super Bowl recently? We got Joe Burrow, quarterback on a rookie contract last year, playing against the Rams in the Super Bowl. Patrick Mahomes, twice on a rookie contract. Jared Goff, when he was on his rookie contract in 2019.

The Philadelphia Eagles with Carson Wentz on his rookie deal. I know it was Nick Foles, but Wentz got them home field advantage. You go back, I think now Carolina was Cam Newton on his rookie deal still at that point. Possible that he was right on the edge of maybe getting a contract, but then Seattle goes to back-to-back Super Bowls with their quarterback yep on a rookie contract and san francisco in 2013 rookie deal for colin kaepernick and monster rosters around them so a lot of the teams that have had tons of success have done it that way it's not the only way to ever do it the 2016 atlanta falcons had matt ryan on an expensive deal you see tom br Brady won a lot. Matthew Stafford last year, which the Vikings have emulated. That was really their goal, right? Was to try to

emulate what Los Angeles did with a lot of star talent and loading up and trying to go all in to win this year. So it is possible, but it's also been pretty well established that if you hit on that quarterback on a rookie deal that you have a really good chance to spend a lot of money around that player and so when the Vikings had gone more or less 500 every year with Kirk Cousins in part because they couldn't keep their defense together and build a strong enough roster and the schedule wasn't as favorable as this year the one score games weren't as favorable as this year and so forth the odds pointed toward if you could move on from cousins and draft a quarterback with your own pick it would give them a really good chance to set up that quarterback,

Mack Jones, with Justin Jefferson and Adam Thielen and Delvin Cook and a good roster, plus lots and lots of money. So that was the idea. It actually had nothing to do with Christian Derrissaw. When they picked Christian Derrissaw, I felt like they got very, very good value for Derrissaw. They traded out of the Elijah Vera Tucker pick to end up selecting Derrissaw. And so on that night, on draft night, I remember we talked about, you know, if you put aside the potential for drafting a quarterback and building around him and you look at what they got certainly they got a great

prospect in derisaw that a lot of people thought was going to go in the top 10 and he's turned out to be a really really good left tackle but you have to understand at the time the logic of making that case for potentially drafting mac jones i would also say that, you know, when you look at the last two years, the Patriots have one fewer win than the Minnesota Vikings. And it's what happened the other night and Mac Jones threw for 382 yards. So the circumstances are not exactly the same. If you put Mac Jones with Justin Jefferson and with Kevin O'Connell potentially, or with a Kubiak offense potentially, I mean, how does he look along with again, 25 million more dollars? So yeah, I don't know. I think that when it comes to these sorts of questions,

they can be a little bit trappy, a little bit like bit like oh you still think that thing that you talked about um so then i come on and i say well actually kind of yeah and then somebody screen grabs it and then tweets it out and then a bunch of people yell at me uh so not going to do that but i am going to say that that remains in the nfl the golden ticket, because of the way that the contracts are structured. And at the time, it was a idea that logically made a lot of sense. And I think it's far from being decided what Mac Jones really is. Compare the value of two players, a quarterback on the rookie deal versus a tackle. I mean, you're talking about, you know, massively different. As much as a left tackle is an important position, it's nothing in comparison to how your quarterback plays,

which is really the biggest determining factor for success or not. So, yeah, I mean, I think that if this year goes from nine and two to a first round out they still need to have that conversation like is it the way to go still to eventually move on and try to get that quarterback on the rookie contract because it's still succeeding that hasn't changed in the nfl and cinc and Cincinnati last year was a good example and Philadelphia is a good example this year so appreciate the question folks if you're looking for a way to celebrate Minnesota's insane football season go to sodastick.com see all the different designs from Kirko chains to the gritty to everything skull related sodastick s-o-t-a-s-t-i-c-k.com

and use the code purple insider for 15 off your purchase all right this one comes from at ro28 on twitter i think the best answer to greg joseph's extra point problems is also the ones that they'll least likely go with go for two after every touchdown. The reason they won't do it is because of the old school. We've always done it this way mentality, which is never a good reason. I understand not wanting to alienate Joseph, but good Lord,

could it be worse? Amir Smith? Marseille couldn't do some parts of his job, so he got cut. If Joseph can't do some parts of his, he should consider himself lucky that he doesn't suffer the same fate being kept around for field goals only is better than being out of work completely meanwhile i don't know why teams don't go for two all the time i'm especially surprised that zimmer didn't given his frustrations with kickers i can't say i

blame him for that but even if you're successful only 50% of the time, you're still breaking even assuming that every extra point is made, which it's not. From two yards out, most teams should be able to convert a two-point attempt much more than half the time. Those points are crucial, especially in a one-score difference season like this for Minnesota. I see being extra aggressive on PATs as no different than the trend of being aggressive on fourth down yeah i think that the studies on two-point conversions have been a little more muddy than the fourth down ones like for example just if it's fourth and one at the 33 it's a pretty clear cut everybody Everybody knows by now, hey, the math says

you just got to go for that most of the time. I mean, unless it's a game-winning situation. But the people who have looked at two-point conversions have found that, like you said, if you kick all the extra points and they're good, it's much closer to break-even. And I think part of the issue is, and I agree that you likely with the weapons they have

and the goal line plays that they have which have been pretty darn successful so far this year that you are going to score more often than you fail overall but the thing about and and i get that part of the element of this is joseph extra points. So I'm understanding of that point. But two-point conversions are going to be more volatile in theory than extra points are. So, for example, I mean, you might miss four in a row in one game and make four in a row in another game where you have a 95% chance or more to make the extra point per the whole league. Now with Joseph, I don't know what's going on with him. I honestly don't know why he's having so much trouble making the extra points.

And if I had to guess, I would lean toward it's just a little bit random, a little bit glitchy that it's just been a thing for him that's off that he should be able to correct. That would be my assessment, my guess, because I just don't know that there's been a kicker at all in the league who has played over multiple seasons that year after year, the guy is just falling apart every time he's asked to kick an extra point. It might be in his head at this point, and it is concerning. there's no doubt that it is very concerning that he continues to miss these extra points that is problematic and i'm sure making many of you very nervous i just think from a statistical standpoint

it's almost like this guy is too good of a kicker to keep missing these over and over and that was my point in the post game where I said, I think you just stick with it because you're chasing your tail. Otherwise sort of chasing variants. But when we talk about variants, even if over the long haul over a hundred games, you're right about the two pointers. If you miss three in a game,

it's like taking a touchdown off the board. And I think that's why coaches are afraid of it. I think that's why it has not been adopted because even if you get 55%, that doesn't mean that you're just going to get five or six out of every 10. It might mean that you hit a cold streak and you miss three in a game and then you lose by two points or something right so that's how coaches are thinking and i think that's where the difference is a little bit from the fourth downs i'm not saying that i totally agree with coaches that there are um statistically studied times that teams really should be going for it that they're still not and they're still just

settling for the extra point rather than going for it but i i mean i think that in theory you have a point i just see why coaches don't do this and why the vikings wouldn't do this that they would make a bet on greg joseph figuring it out and just getting those points easily as he has in the past and as most other kickers in the entire league have been doing since they moved the extra point back. Which I wasn't a huge fan of, by the way. Because I thought that it added a little more, I don't know. Variance is word over using that. But like a little more variance where it didn't need to be.

Like this is supposed to be tacking on one point. It's not supposed to be as difficult as a field goal, but it hasn't caused that many problems in the league for these kickers, except for of course, the Minnesota Vikings kicker. I think if you're going to change your approach there, it just should mean a new kicker. And then you sacrifice maybe some of the other skill that greg joseph has but it's definitely concerning the misses on the 50 plus is concerning i mean those are kicks

that you expect your kicker to make half of them and that just hasn't been greg joseph thing at all this year and i have wondered if there is some problem with the holding operation that, you know, they sacrificed Jordan Berry and his chemistry with Greg Joseph for the unbelievable leg and acting skills of Ryan Wright. So I think on a, on a philosophical basis, on a theoretical basis, what you're saying is a very interesting idea. And boy, would it be something if all of a sudden the Vikings just were like, we're going to be the team that just goes for two and goes for two and goes for two. But it hasn't cost them. And in a similar fashion that we talked about the 40 to three game and how it was kind of a wake up call of you're going to have to get the play action and the quick game going.

You could look at this similarly that until it costs them there's these are going to be blips on the radar these are going to mostly go forgotten that any of this happened but if they miss an extra point to win a game or to lose a game uh then it might cost greg joseph his job but when you're nine and two you don't usually throw anybody overboard that it doesn't sit well i think in the locker room when you're saying oh well you know we've this guy's got to go even though everything we've done has worked and we talked about that with the right guard situation where it's hard to bench somebody when everything is mostly working and then even this week they weren't likely to bench him on a short week and then ingram was still their lowest graded pass blocker but not so much as it destroyed them

in this game it was still a little bit troublesome with the holding penalty and so forth but until it's really costly these teams are a little slow to move because they don't want to overreact they don't want to manipulate the locker room that kind of thing those considerations have to be uh put into the conversation but you know i i like where your head's at though i mean this is the type of thing that's up my alley uh and if they started doing it and said you know what we have justin jefferson you don't we have delvin cook you don't we're going to score on these these, and we're going to take every touchdown and try to turn it into eight. That would certainly spice things up,

and I don't think it's the worst idea I've ever heard on the show, but I wouldn't count on it. I think they're probably going to just play it out with Greg Joseph and try to do everything they can to get it figured out. But I like what you're thinking there. I do like what you're thinking. I don't know if I would do it. I don't know if I'd have the guts to do it, but it would, it's yeah, it would be interesting

if they decided to just, Hey, you know what? You just kick 46 yard field goals and we'll take care of those extra points. One from Andrew D Bowers on Twitter, getting way ahead of ourselves, but if Kirk leads the Vikings to the Super Bowl, does he become Joe Flacco with a new contract and ultimately traded? Or Trent Dilfer released, or do the Vikings simply kick the can another year? I think he gets an extension easy. In fact, it's just really hard to see that not happening already because I know like nobody knows better than me about the statistics and the numbers that he's putting up this

year that are not what we have come to expect from Kirk Cousins. He currently sits 12th in PFF grade, even with the other night, his highest QBR, not one of his higher numbers of his career. He's 19th in traditional quarterback rating. Like those numbers are not going to matter to the ownership of this team. I think, I mean, they brought cousins back and they made a bet on him and they will make that bet again, especially if he wins the Superbowl, they will reward him. Think about all the players who have been rewarded by this team

and did not win the Super Bowl, but just went to the NFC Championship game and had the number one defense. I mean, Harrison Smith is still here. Eric Hendricks is still here. And I have to think that a lot of that has to do with these being the ownership's favorite players and those guys have played well this year i mean i think that eric hendricks has had a fine season especially as a run defender he's done very well harrison smith has come up with some big plays for this

team some game-winning plays in miami but when you look at the cap hits versus the positional value and so forth, it's a little bit hard to justify the way that they've handled some of these contracts. And I have to think that the ownership of this team has some of its favorites and they make sure that they stick around. And I can definitely tell you who's going to be their favorite ever if they win the Super Bowl. But just like with Joe Flacco, it's like, who cares at that point? Who cares if you sign Kirk Cousins to the most expensive contract in the history of the National Football League, if you've got your Super Bowl, whatever,

whatever comes next. I mean, he's what, 34 years old now, and he'll probably play until he's 38 to 40, somewhere in that ballpark. So if he signs a lifetime, I'm going to finish my career with the Minnesota Vikings after going to the Super Bowl or winning the Super Bowl. I mean, I guess especially winning the Super Bowl, but even a Super Bowl appearance would be really the crowning achievement of the Kirk Cousins era here in Minnesota. So if that were to happen, they would say,

all right, we know that you're capable of doing that even when you're an expensive quarterback. So here is all the money in our wallets. But my point just being that if that happens, the winning of the Superbowl in particular, then you're not going to care about what his contract is for the future. You win the Superbowl and the rest of the decade is sort of just a big party that you won the Superbowl after so long. And I know that that does wear thin, even for teams like, think about New Orleans. They won the Super Bowl, and then they had that bit of a downturn where they were kind of a 500 team for a couple years,

had historically bad defenses under Rob Ryan and the suspension of Sean Payton and all those things that went on. And then they got another kick at the can. They came extremely close at least once, and then, of course, the Minneapolis Miracle happened to them as well, and I think that they felt snakebit at that time, and I'm sure that New Orleans Saints fans would not have said, oh, yeah, it was all great after that. So that does wear off eventually,

but it won't wear off in the time that Kirk Cousins is still playing. It will just be a celebration of the quarterback who won you the Super Bowl. And yes, we have spent almost 10 minutes on that possibility. And it becomes realistic when you win this many games in the regular season that it is a real possibility. So those are certainly questions that maybe, you know, months ago we wouldn't necessarily have had. But now the Vikings are in the position to legitimately compete for it with Kirk Cousins, which if they end up the rest of the way here with 14 wins, even 13 wins,

and win a playoff game and give themselves a chance, I think that's resulting in Kirk Cousins continuing to be the quarterback of this team pretty much for the rest of his career anyway. Just because, you know, I don't think they're going to look at it as like they did with Case Keenum. This is not a fluke. This is a guy that they paid to be this good, paid to take the team here. It just took a while in order to get the team back to a position where they could compete for a Super Bowl. So you might already be in a spot in a few weeks where they're in the front office and ownership talking about what is an extension going to look like for Kirk Cousins. So, I mean, the season is not over yet.

There's still time to go and there's still a competition for seating and all that but i mean look at their remaining schedule it would really have to be disastrous i think for cousins not to be the quarterback for quite some time after this okay one more here uh this one comes from at mcgillis1 on twitter talk Talk me into never getting Kirk a wide receiver three because it wouldn't even matter if they did. Osborne has been invisible, and I've seen him do nothing to make tough catches and timely plays for this team.

When called upon, Kirk barely feeds his wide receiver two enough, even dating back to when it was Thielen and Diggs. I cannot talk you into them not getting a third receiver. I can't and I won't. I refuse to because they should have. I know what you're saying, but last year they were able to get K.J. Osborne the ball a lot and he was pretty darn valuable.

I mean, look at that Carolina game. At the end of the game, K.J. Osborne came through. I don't really truly understand why Osborne and Cousins have just not been able to connect this year I mean some of it must be randomness a little bit I mean the play where he threw the interception to Osborne I think that somebody fell at Cousins feet and he didn't really step into the throw. And it just sailed on him a little bit and went over Osborne. But they have not been able to figure each other out. Maybe it doesn't fit for KJ Osborne the same way.

He is definitely not a downfield wide receiver, which a lot of the routes have been. Where I don't get it is why there's no screen passes to him. There's screen passes to Hawkinson. There's screen passes to him there's screen passes to hockinson there's screen passes to johnny munt but there's no screen passes to the guy who could actually make some plays with his legs like he did on the end of rounds i don't understand it and i think that that third wide receiver position it's like well you won't know until you try i mean mean, when we look at the Jamison Williams decision, we're going to evaluate that one as we go along.

But even more than that, I mean, you trade for Jalen Rager. Don't really use him. Not sure that he's actually a wide receiver three option to begin with, but the production couldn't be much less than it has been for KJ Osborne so far this year. I don't think that it's Kirk Cousins refuses to throw to wide receiver three. He's always been very much a guy who throws it where he's supposed to throw it. And, you know, 2018 with Diggs and Thielen was pretty good for both of those guys. So I don't, I don't know that I totally agree with him not getting it to wide receiver two.

That's been the case this year. Presumably, though, some of that has just been the fit as well and where Thielen's at with him limping off the field multiple times per game now at this point. So we assume that some of that plays into it and just how the offense is designed a lot of the times to just run through Justin Jefferson. But yeah, I can't talk you into a third option not being good. I mean, I think that's really why they went and traded for TJ Hawkinson. And in, let's see what, now they've had him for three games, is it three or four?

Must be Washington, Buffalo, and Dallas and New England. So four games they've had TJ Hawkinson. And in three of them, he's made important plays. So they do have that guy now in the tight end position. And they may even hope at some point in the playoffs to get Irv Smith back as a tight end number two to just add something to the mix to have another guy there. But yeah, I mean, I think that they realized even before Irv Smith got hurt that they needed one more weapon for Kirk Cousins.

And in most of the games, TJ Hawkinson has been that, but they still don't have someone who is a major threat to have breakout plays, you know, to go for a 50 yard touchdown. I mean, Hawkinson, I think that it once this year with detroit it's not really his thing though you sort of expect hockinson to be the guy who goes 12 yards over the middle makes a catch runs for five more is hard to take down like that's kind of who he is or he can slip out on a little screen like he did or or whatever it was an underneath route for the touchdown like that's where TJ Hawkinson brings it to you but could they have used the deep threat could they have used the playmaker somewhere sometime I think so I don't think that that's a Cousins thing and even going back you

know Washington had that guy in Jamison Crowder and he had a good amount of success with Kirk Cousins so but there's nothing they can do about it now. I mean, they did what they could in getting the best possible extra weapon for Cousins in TJ Hawkinson. And I think that will continue to pay dividends as we go down the road. So interesting questions from you guys. Really appreciate them. Keep them coming.

I got more in the file, but always enjoy them and should have a little bit of extra time this week to do some more fans only and get through the file and all the questions that have been waiting there because things have been a little hectic with Thanksgiving and such. So thank you guys so much as always. And we'll talk to you again soon.