Purple Insider - a Minnesota Vikings and NFL podcast - O'Connell simplifying the Vikings offense? (and Halloween Vikings curses)

Episode Date: November 1, 2024

Matthew Coller and Manny Hill talk on Halloween about the spookiest things about the Vikings and their history and discuss whether they think the Vikings will win, big NFC North games and Manny's favorite Colts players ever Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Hey everybody, welcome to another episode of Purple Insider. Matthew Collar and Manny Hill and wishing you a very happy Halloween on this evening. I've just been given some candy to trick-or-treaters. Now my wife's handling that duty for the rest of the night. So they're not getting left out and my house is not going to get teepeed or anything else like that or egged. But always a fun night to talk about maybe some fun stuff. I think I want to talk about spookiness in Viking land, many of which I feel like there's a lot. And I started making just a small list. And then I ended up coming to a conspiracy theory on Halloween that is not like the political conspiracy theories you hear, but the old aliens and pyramids and stuff like that, those style.

I came up with one for Vikings history that I want to share once we get the audience built up a little bit more here in the room. But I'm very proud of myself. I want to know from you what you think the spookiest thing about the Minnesota Vikings in their history is. Probably if you're thinking just in the last like quarter century, probably kickers. Just the whole thing with kickers. I mean, the Vikings have had their the vikings have had their hearts broken fan bases had their hearts broken a couple of times in the postseason with kickers obviously

with gary anderson missing the kick in 98 against atlanta in the nfc title game and blair walsh shanking a 27 yard field goal uh against the seattle seahawks in a very cold day at then TCF Bank Stadium. So when I think of spooky, spooky things about the Minnesota Vikings and their history, certainly in the last quarter century, it's always come down to kickers sort of letting this team down. Now, we've had some good moments. I think we've seen some good moments with this team and kickers as well. As you know, in those two examples that I bring up,

you know, Gary Anderson that year in 98 was very good. He hadn't missed a kick the whole season. And Blair Walsh, up until he missed that kick against the Seahawks, had been a really good kicker for them for a couple years as well and was great as a rookie for them in 2012. And I think, honestly, that part of it is what makes it really spooky is because. The fan base has been lured into the thought of like, we've got a good kicker, we've got a really good kicker. Hopefully this is not the case.

Knock on wood with Will Reichert right now because he's been fantastic. But then that guy just something happens. That guy just lets you down. And then he's never the same after that like gary anderson was never the same after he missed that kick he hung around with the vikings for a couple more years was never really the same after that and blair walsh just completely fell apart after he missed that kick against seattle so hopefully at at the very least if will reicher breaks everybody's hearts hopefully he can keep things together after that and maintain

himself as a very good kicker which he is right now before i give you my very wild theory i just wrote down a bunch of stuff that is spooky about the vikings that came to mind for me and then i have an important question for you i want you to think about this so i'm giving you my list is the franchise actually cursed because we got a lot of that a lot of that this week and i would love to know that from our viewers if the viewers actually think that the franchise is cursed and if you are an og listener to the show i brought this up a few times but i did an episode with someone who studies conspiracy theories again not the fake news ones but the like the the crazy uh you know, what do they what do they call the thing that walks around in the mountains? The man slash beast. What is that called? Like the Bigfoot, the Bigfoot.

Yeah. OK. Yeah. He has like many names. Yeti, like whatever. Right. So they research kind of weird conspiracies like that. And he came on and said that it is possible that the Vikings have been cursed because they left their championship trophy at a gas station when they won in 1969 to go play against the Kansas City Chiefs. Then they got killed by the Chiefs and it's never been the same since then. So that was where he traced it back to. So I want you to tell me if you believe in sports franchises being cursed. But here's the things I came up with for the spookiest things that have happened.

The roof collapsing is spooky. I've never heard of this before. A roof just caving in of a stadium. Of course, it would only happen here. That's one thing. How about the knee injuries? Okay, knee injuries in sports common how many other quarterbacks have had knee injuries destroy two franchise quarterbacks

how many other franchises has ever had that okay alex smith that happened i guess washington could say that with uh joe theismann and his leg injury, but that their career is over. Leg injuries happen all the time in sports, but for Teddy Bridgewater to never be the same, for Culpepper to never be the same, and numerous other players. But, I mean, that's just crazy, that level of catastrophe. How about what happened between Zim and Norv? That was right around Halloween.

And they have maybe some sort of disagreement. They're, what, five and two football team, and Norv just walks off the job, and we never get a full explanation of what went down between Zim and Norv. That's very spooky. Zimmer's eyeball exploding in a game, very spooky. I did write down kickers, NFC championship games in general.

And I think the spookiest thing about the Minnesota Vikings is that they have more wins than anybody else without a Super Bowl. How is it possible? It defies all logic. I mean, so many of these things have only applied here. I wouldn't say that's true with kickers. I mean, other teams, kickers, the chargers, the other teams, kickers have missed key kicks. None of them made every single kick that year and then missed the

key kick though. It's always so improbable or so bizarre. It's, oh, this has never happened before, and it's happening to the Vikings right now. So do you believe they're cursed? I've never really been a big believer in sports curses, but I have always felt that they were fun to talk about. Obviously, you think about with baseball, with the Red Sox being cursed for so many years you know from basically from 1918 up until they came back and beat the yankees in 2004

i still need to watch that documentary by the way that's on netflix um you know with with that whole thing with the curse of the bambino the curse of the of the Billy Goat with the Chicago Cubs. You kind of just wonder, like, how does a team go that long without winning a championship? And in the case of the Vikings, certainly in the Super Bowl era, how can a team win this many games, be this successful, have good teams, have examples of good teams in basically every decade since then? I mean, 70s, they had great teams.

The 80s, they had some good teams. The 90s, obviously, with Denny, they had some really good teams. And in the 2000s, they've had some really good teams as well. And they just can't seem to get that championship. And now you start to wonder, like, is the curse even like getting, you know, not even being able to get past the nfc championship game now because it's been almost 50 years since they've gone to the super bowl and they've been to several nfc championship games since then and they've always come up it's

always been a heartbreaking loss where one or two plays could have been the difference in them winning or they just get absolutely obliterated so yeah i mean it's and it's really never been anything in between with that either so um yeah i it's it's fun to think about realistically no i don't believe in in sports curses but sometimes you watch these things happening. You're just kind of like, maybe, I don't know. You can't help yourself. You can't help but to wonder sometimes it's, it is fun to talk about though. I have always been of the mind that you're only as cursed as your quarterback situation as a franchise,

but then with Buffalo and Josh Allen, they've been so close for so long and they miss a field goal of all things to happen to them last year. Wide right with a chance to tie a game late against the Chiefs, the 13 seconds against the Chiefs. And you go, man,

even when they have the best quarterback, it just so happens that another team has the other best and he's slightly better and their team is slightly better and more clutch and so forth um but you know new orleans was cursed for the longest time they couldn't win with the dome patrol then they were a mess with uh jim everett and that whole situation and then

they get drew breeze and suddenly they're not and there's plenty of franchises that are like that it does have me wondering though i'm glad you brought up the Saints because we obviously had the Bounty Gate thing in 2009. Right. If you look at the Saints' history since then, you know, they got their Super Bowl championship and everything, but it's almost like they paid a hefty price for winning that Super Bowl championship

with the Bounty Gate because they have had, I mean, you talk about a team that's had a lot of heartbreak in the postseason since Bounty Gate was uncovered. The New Orleans Saints, man, I mean, you're talking about the Marshawn Lynch run. You're talking about Marcus Colston lateraling the ball forward when he could have just turned around and went out of bounds and given Drew Brees another shot,

that game being in Seattle a couple of years after that. The Vernon Davis touchdown catch, the pass interference against the Rams in the NFC title game that wasn't called, that could have been the difference there. The Vikings going into New Orleans and Kyle Rudolph maybe getting away

with a little bit of a push off there. Yeah, the Saints have been dealing with a lot of stuff. Just it's almost like that price that they paid for having Bounty Gate going to the Super Bowl and beating the Colts. They've been paying for it ever since. That is a good theory. I like that theory. It actually is similar to the theory that I came up with when I was

hunting around for different things about the Vikings that are cursed. I always thought that one of the things about the Vikings that was cursed is that they had the greatest receiver, or let's call them the most unstoppable wide receiver of all time. And they couldn't win the Superbowl with Randy Moss and throw, throw in the comment section. If you guys are, if you, if you're that person who thinks the franchise is cursed, I did see a lot of that this week after they lost to the Rams and Darisaw got hurt. It was like, Oh, knees us again. Or if you're, you're not a believer in the curses, we're trying to have a little fun on Halloween. I also feel like I've talked about every possible trade in the entire world

that the Vikings could do, and I have no more trades left. We'll get to Vikings Colts. Your favorite Colts are higher and lower for underdog fantasy and everything with that. But I did want to have some Halloween fun here to start. So here's my theory. My theory about Randy Moss is that the Vikings sold their soul for Randy Moss. Okay.

Now here's what makes me think of this. Not just that Gary Anderson missed the kick, but also because of what happened to the first round draft picks after Randy Moss. Okay. Listen to this list. And I know you know it, but maybe you've never thought of it this way. Okay. The next year's picks after Randy Moss

were Demetrius Underwood and Dante Culpepper. Underwood came to training camp and quit football, and Dante Culpepper teased the fans in a way that no one had since Fran Tarkenton. He was dynamic. He was explosive. He was exciting. And then the 2004 season is one

of the best quarterback seasons in history. And then his knee explodes in a game against the Carolina Panthers cursed. Okay. So it's not just them the next year. How about Chris Hovan, a terrific interior player, but then fell off. He starts out super hot and mysteriously with no explanation, just couldn't play anymore anywhere at the same level. And that is a trend here a little bit with our other first round draft picks after Moss. How about Michael Bennett? Was anyone ever faster on a football field in that era than Michael Bennett? 1200 yards. You got to think this is the next Robert Smith. Look at how great this guy is falls off. How about Bryant McKinney? Never lives up to his potential, just plays and plays and plays, but never really becomes a great player.

And then goes to the Baltimore Ravens and wins a Superbowl. Bryant McKinney, never quite, never quite figured it out. How about the Kevin Williams pick? Of course, one of the great players in history should be in the hall of fame someday, but the pick, remember it wasn't their pick. It wasn't their pick. They passed at the time run out. Had they made their own pick, who knows what calamity could have befallen them. But instead they use somebody else's pick and then they ended up getting the great player but that's another thing that's never happened before ever with a team just not uh taking their pick after that how about uh uh kanechi uh udesi who had five sacks and then

got leukemia after that now he's okay so i'm not making light of that he's coaching he's like 40 years old he's fine uh but he had to quit football at age 24 after looking like a promising player now here's where it gets very interesting man troy williamson shows up cannot catch the football can't apparently see the football and erasmus j could not guard, could not guard you. Okay. Two absolutely horrendous picks. One of them being the supposed replacement for Randy Moss. After that, they get Chad Greenway and Adrian Peterson are their next picks. And that's where the curse was lifted. Like, okay, that you paid, paid you paid you sold your soul for randy moss and as soon as he was gone and troy williamson was busy screwing over the organization

then finally it was lifted by troy williamson being a bust and then they went right to drafting pro bowl players and uh hall of famers after that in the first round. And that is the sold your soul for Randy Moss conspiracy. I love it. That's great. A couple of things. One, Bryant McKinney, I'll never forget because I was at the Metrodome in his first, in his NFL debut, which was halfway through the season

because he was holding out because this was back when player when rookies were still like holding out for as much money as they possibly could. They didn't have like the rookie scale that was, you know, they didn't have the rookie scale slots basically, where the lower you get picked, you know, the less the lesser your salary is. So McKinney held out and the store store the big thing with him was his entire collegiate career at the university of miami and i think even going back to his high school days he had never allowed a sack never in his entire life had he had ever given up a sack in his very first game against the new york giants kenny holmes late in the game blows right past him sacks todd

bauman strip sacks todd bauman for a fumble that ends up clinching the game for the Giants I'll never forget it and as one does sacking Todd Bauman but also not only that but as many times as the Vikings have tried since Randy Moss they haven't found their quarterback the they they tried drafting in the first round, didn't work with Christian Ponder. Teddy Bridgewater didn't work out the knee. And now it's on JJ McCarthy to eventually break that streak. But maybe that's what happened. Okay. So we could talk about other stuff, obviously, but I'm curious about other things that Vikings fans think are cursed. So feel free to drop into the comment section. Also, if you have any regular questions about the Vikings, go ahead. I really

need another football game. There was a bi-week and then a mini bi-week really close together, which means talking about a lot of the same stuff repeatedly until we get another football game to work with. And so I just can't wait for Sunday's game. Justin Jefferson said something interesting today, Manny, when he was just casually chatting with us for his weekly press conference. And he said that Kevin O'Connell is paring down the offense this week. And I got the impression that that meant simplifying the offense this week. And I wonder if you think that this is a good idea because I tend to lean toward yes, because they've had all these issues when it comes to getting lined up correctly.

They've had the problems with the false starts, with the delays of game, and also just not getting the ball out of Darnold's hands quickly, maybe asking him to read too much of the field. I think that doing this, and we'll see what the results are, that matters the most, but maybe shows a little bit of self-awareness from Kevin O'Connell that it's not just Sam Darnold's own fault that the ball's not coming out. It also could be that some of the things schematically are asking more than necessary from Sam Darnold. Do you think that this could fix what ails the Vikings offense when it comes to consistency?

I think if done correctly, yes. I think that one of the things that certainly you and I have been talking about for the last few weeks now is trying to mix in a little bit more of the shorter passing game into what they're doing instead of trying to push the ball down the field all of the time. Which, yeah, that's an element to your offense that you want to have. You want to be able to get good big chunks of yards and, and, you know, push the ball down the field and get into the end zone and score touchdowns and score points. That's obviously the number one goal, but you know, sometimes the way you do it can play a role in how your entire team performs, not just your quarterback, obviously for Sam Darnold, I think it would be a really good thing to kind of simplify things a little bit, get some of the shorter passing game in there. Obviously, you know, whatever we tend to make

of what Jordan Addison did on his social media accounts in the last week, you know, maybe this is a way to get him more involved in the offense and make him a little bit happier. Obviously, Justin Jefferson is involved in the offense every week. You're getting TJ Hawkinson back here. I think his greatest asset, his greatest skill is sort of that shorter to intermediate passing game where he can run those eight, nine yard routes and be available, be kind of a safety net for Sam Darnold to lean on, you know, and not having him, I think has played a role maybe in how things have gone with the offense. And I think mixing them in there could change things. I think this is a really good

thing. And I, you know, I'll be curious to see how it turns out. My gut tells me that it's going to make this offense more consistent, more productive. I think it's going to give the defense an opportunity to maybe rest a little bit more because they're not in the field as much because the Vikings will be able to sustain drives and move the chains a little bit better. Now, the other side of it is you do still have to execute. You still do have to make things happen. It's easy to say, OK, we're going to do this and do this and we're going to simplify things help, you know, maybe stabilize that spot. He's not as good as Christian Derrissaw, but I don't think he's going to be a total disaster there. So I think this is a chance, this has a chance to work. It's just now putting it out

there on the field and executing it and getting it done. Yeah. I think that it really depends on the, of course, like you said, the execution of the idea, which is to get the ball out of his hands faster. And even Darnold said the other day, kind of wants to get back to the idea of playing point guard a little bit more, which he talked about a ton in the off season. But I can also see where he's done a good job of that when the ball does come out. So it's not like they have totally botched all things that are going on. I mean, he's got 107 quarterback rating and the last two games, I think I had the stat that he was something like 14 for 16 when throwing under 10 yards and they were averaging seven yards of play over the last two weeks. So he can do this. It's not something that he struggles with. I think what he struggles with is I have the most freakish arm and when do I use it to pump the ball into tight windows, to push the ball to Justin Jefferson. And that's a

very hard thing to figure out today. After practice, we were standing around just to demonstrate how disgusting Sam Darnold's arm is. We were standing around and just waiting for Cam Robinson to talk with him. Darnold was standing at about the 25 yard line and just threw the ball, trying to hit the back pylon and the opposite side of the end zone for 25 yards away, casually let it rip and drilled the pylon that that's this high off the ground. That's like 14 inches off the ground or whatever. And is four inches thick. And it was like a guy shooting an arrow high off the ground. That's like 14 inches off the ground or whatever. And is four inches thick. And it was like a guy shooting an arrow right through the thing. And we all just went,

okay. Like, I mean, this, this, this man's natural ability to throw a football is absolutely freakish. And we've seen that. I mean,

the 51 yard throw to Addison, he doesn't even have to wind up the 51 yard throw to Addison, he doesn't even have to wind up. The 97 yard throw to Jefferson, it looked like he put some touch on it and didn't even throw it as hard as he could. So I can understand when you have Jefferson and you have this mentality to create explosive plays. And when you create explosives, you can score, but you do have to take pressure off of the defense. And the biggest thing I think Manny is throwing on first down. I was doing a little more research on this tonight. And when Kirk was the quarterback, they threw on first down in 2022,

15 times per game on first down. It's only eight so far with Sam Darnold, but yet he has 121 quarterback rating when throwing on first down. I think that's a really good place to start with trying to get Sam Darnold going and in a rhythm early, and that could help him with the play calling. It could help him with just getting everybody lined up, and the line of scrimmage is having play after play after play and not having it be joggy,

and also trying to take a little bit of pressure off of Aaron Jones to always be the answer on first down. Yeah. And when a team, when the opposing team knows that, and when they're, you know, looking at those same numbers and they're saying, oh yeah, this team, they like to run a lot on first down. So let's key in on Aaron Jones. Every time it's first and 10, let's key in on Aaron Jones because they're likely to turn around and hand the ball off to him. And I think the Rams probably knew that on Thursday, which didn't help things with Aaron Jones because Aaron was not very productive in Thursday's game. And so I think, you know, being able to mix things up a little bit more, you know, hell, run some play action on first down you know what I mean

if teams are thinking that you're going to run the ball first on first and 10 run a play action and that might open things up for you a little bit maybe not even necessarily all the way down the field but even with just some of the shorter to intermediate stuff it can open things up for you too so I think it's just a matter of not even sure balance is the right word, but just not being so, I don't even love the word predictable either, but not be quite as predictable as maybe you have been in recent weeks. I think that'll help this offense a lot. So I want to circle back to your favorite Colts of all time

and also how we feel about this game and what we think different players will do statistically. But there is a dilemma facing the Minnesota Vikings for this week and their fans, not really the Vikings so much. They're worried about playing football, but their fans are facing a dilemma with two NFC North teams playing against each other. Now in previous years, Mr. Hill, they would have been rooting for them lions. Let's go lions when they are facing the green Bay Packers. But now you are trying to trace a chase down the lions, but you could also look at it as the lions. they win okay it's fine if they run away with the NFC North we kind of think that's what's going to happen anyway you want the Packers

farther behind you who should they be rooting for here Manny to win between the Detroit Lions and Green Bay Packers it's a great question I'm gonna going to lean towards, I'm going to lean towards rooting for the Packers because I think you're only a game behind the Detroit Lions right now. Now they've got the tiebreaker over you because they beat you. But I think that, you know, because you're still within striking distance of the division right now, I think you got to root for the team that's at the top of the division right now to lose. And, you know, I think in the case with the Packers is think of the Packers, if you can, you know, because you beat them already, you have that tiebreaker over them. You're going to have a chance to, to solidify that tiebreaker later on when they come to us

bank stadium. I think if you stay neck and neck with the Packers, that can still kind of work in your favor. But because Detroit has that game on you, I think you're rooting for them to lose as many games as they can in order for you to kind of stay and keep pace with them. Because I still think there's a chance that they can win this division. Need some things to go their way. Obviously, Detroit is playing as well as anybody in the league and they're favored to win this division. They should be favored to win this division. You know, I think that they are evidently at the end of the season going to end up winning this division and getting that number one seed in the conference. But I think if you're the Vikings right now, I think you're probably pulling for Green Bay to come away with a victory just to keep things interesting and keep yourself in the conversation for the division because I think you're probably pulling for Green Bay to come away with a victory just to keep things interesting and keep yourself in the conversation for the division, because I think it's still mildly attainable. wrong with the team. And the Detroit lions have occasionally throughout the history of their

franchise had a few things go wrong from time to time. So that's not impossible that they could hit the skids or that Jared Goff could get hurt or whatever might happen. They lose a couple of close games. And also when you consider that the Vikings have these games against the AFC South coming up. And the only opponent that really is spooky to the Vikings coming up is the division opponents when it comes to the very end of the season. Everyone else is beatable for the Vikings. It's too early to just say, all right, Detroit, you're too good. You get a win there and we'll deal with Green Bay and go back and forth with them. I think

you're right. I think you would rather see the Lions lose this game and everybody stay bunched up in the NFC North to keep the Vikings as close to the top. The other part of it too is if anything does go wrong with Detroit and the Vikings are in striking distance and they can win the division, then you might be talking about winning the conference, which I know has been completely thrown out the window after they lost two games in a row. And I will give credit to the great statistician, Michael Lopez, who pointed out not too long ago on Twitter before the season, I think in week two, that there's that Owen tombstone. If you ever heard of that, when teams go to Owen too,

but any team that loses back-to-back games in the NFL has a lower chance of making the playoffs or winning X number of games. So even the fact that it happened to the Vikings has lowered their chance at winning the conference, winning 13 games. You brought it back down to 11 after the two losses, which I thought was reasonable the margin for winning the conference is now a lot thinner for the vikings than it would have been

but they didn't fall to five and five with one loss they fell to five and two so they are in the rearview mirror of the detroit lions i think i can agree with you there if this was three or four weeks later and det Detroit was still running over the league, then I would probably say them. Now here's the dilemma though. Manny is let's say that we, you know, agree that it's better for the Vikings. If the Packers win,

can Vikings fans bring them to root for the green Bay Packers as they're watching that game because it is ultimately better for the Vikings. I think, yeah, I mean, that is a huge dilemma. I think in some cases, you do have to kind of play the enemy of my enemy is my friend type of role. You know what I mean? I think in this particular case, because like you said, because it's still fairly early in the season, you know, I think this division is still up for grabs. Detroit is, like I said, is obviously the front runner and the favorite. But this division is still able to be had by really all four teams. Now, I think the Bears are going to come back to earth. And, you know, I think that loss to Washington really hurt them but um but this division is still wide it's it's the best division in football and it's still kind of wide open right now any one of these teams can if they go on a streak go on a run here um can kind of take command of it um but yeah i mean it it would the the crazy thing is

in this division the only team that you don't really feel too disgusted with rooting for, if you're a Vikings fan, is probably the Detroit Lions, because you don't really love the Chicago Bears. You hate the Green Bay Packers. The Lions, because they've just been this dormant team, the laughingstock of the division for so long, you just never really find them in this position. So you're not really tempted to like root against them necessarily. But I think in this particular case, I think you kind of have to because they have that game on you. And because they're the defending division champions and they're the front runners, the idea is you want

to take them down and take the division for yourself. And I think that's the best path for the Vikings to win this division, I think, is for the season maybe you want to save that card for later if you have to root for them in a different game down the road that helps the Vikings in some way there might be a circumstance where you'd have to do it twice in the same season I'm not sure these people could stomach that so maybe if you just want to save that that card for later but who do you think wins that football game I'm gonna take Detroit yeah you know I I just with Jordan Love being out and I know they did okay with Malik Williams with Malik Willis earlier when Jordan Love missed games at some point I think that's gonna catch up to them now the Packers are really well coached and well coached team Maliflor just does a great job. And for him to keep them afloat when Jordan Love did go down for those couple of games

was really impressive. But you just got to wonder how much of that can they actually stomach? How much of that can they survive? I think this is going to be the time where they probably come back to earth a little bit and Detroit goes in on fire, off, you know, a game in which they obliterated a bad team, which is what you should do if you're, you know, aspiring to win a championship. I think the Lions are rolling right now. And I think this is probably going to be a long afternoon for, for the Green Bay Packers on Sunday. Hold on. Let me silence my phone real quick

so I can tell you that us days are back at U.S. Cellular again. Exclusive offers just for customers just to say thanks. Right now you'll get $1,200 off any phone plus $400 off any tablet. Amazing, right? Yeah, but my family is so excited about their new devices that they keep texting me during the show. They're all about us days deals like $1,200 off any phone and four plus $400 off any tablet terms apply. Visit us cellular.com for details. Yeah. The way that Detroit is playing

in the other part of it too is that i always look at the previous week and what type of stress a team was under and this applied to the vikings going out and playing the rams and i didn't go with my own theory on that i mean i probably should have said they just play the lions it's hard to play the lions and then go play somebody else in a few days and that game should be closer i was wrong on that but it does tend to play the lions and then go play somebody else in a few days. And that game should be closer. I was wrong on that, but it does tend to play out in the NFL season. If you have a stressful game, if you have a difficult game,

well, whatever Detroit had last week was not that it was not stressful. It was not difficult. It was a preseason game for the Detroit lions. And even though they are going on the road, Jared Goff is the same dude who walked into that stadium and ended Aaron Rodgers' time as a Green Bay Packer. He's not intimidated by US Bank Stadium. He's not intimidated by Lambeau Field. They have the line to protect

him. The weapons are playing great. They can run the ball there, even if it's a little bit of sloppy weather. They've just got answers for what the Packers do well and half of Jordan Love without his mobility it being the same or Malik Willis I think Malik Willis did a great job earlier this season they couldn't have asked for anything better from him and I would like to see Malik Willis after this if he play if he plays I don't know if he's going to play or not that's not not out there just yet. But if Malik Willis continues to play well, I'd like to see him get a shot with someone and just add his name to the list of quarterbacks that people gave up on way too early and then became reasonable starters elsewhere. Maybe we'll add Anthony Richardson's name to that list at some point down the road. But Willis was always a high ceiling development type quarterback with great tools.

And for Tennessee to say, no, we would rather have Mason Rudolph and get rid of someone with potential is one of the most mind blowing and bizarre moves that I can remember. Because Willis doesn't, it's not like he's a bad dude or he got arrested or anything weird like that. He just didn't win the backup job. And they said, we're going to trade you. And of course, good organization, stay good. The Packers right there to pick him up. I I'd love to see that for him just because he dropped in the draft. And that was a big story anyway, that, that doesn't mean I think they're good enough to beat the best team in football with a backup quarterback.

I think Willis, that's going to run out a little bit, that they've had to be a little gimmicky, if not a lot gimmicky, with Malik Willis in there. So if they have to play him, that's going to be tough. We also saw Jordan Love with some limitation against the Vikings, not really be at his best. So I would also take the Lions. I want to ask you about the bears um if you want to turn around well i asked the question if you want to turn around and hype up

the crowd for this and not listen to the question just hype up the crowd like tyreek stevenson they're playing the cardinals uh on the road it is no easy task against the cardinals kyler murray was fantastic last week and he has them as a 500 team right now. And I think a lot of people thought they would have been worse. The bears are now four and three. I think the bears are going to stumble and tumble in the coming weeks. I think they've got the Patriots mixed in, but everything else is against hard teams. There's been some figuring out maybe a little bit of what Caleb Williams can and can't identify at the line of scrimmage.

Arizona doesn't have a good defense, but I think that they can copycat some of the things that Washington did to confuse him. If I were covering the Bears, I would probably be spending the whole week saying, I'm a little worried about this. And not only that, but the way that Williams played last week was regression. But also the fact that everybody came out and called out the head coach

in press conferences, in interviews, even interviews that were done the next day, talking about everything that Matt Eberflus did wrong. There doesn't really seem to be a lot of belief in the head coach there. And that makes me wonder if Chicago is about to come apart. I think this is really Chicago's season on the line. They go to four and four in the NFC North, and you are having a really tough time making the playoffs at that point.

Yeah. And you look at the schedule, you mentioned the schedule they have coming up. They have the Patriots after this Sunday at home. But even New England, New England is not a very talented team, but they play hard. They're playing hard for Gerard Mayo right now. And, you know, they took it to the Jets this past week. And, you know, the Jets are another team that's just kind of reeling

and a mess right now. So if the Bears don't find a way to win this game on Sunday against the Cardinals, are the wheels just really going to start falling off of this thing because you're going to have a New England team that comes into Soldier Field the next Sunday that's shown that they play very hard, they're ready to compete, even though they're typically kind of undermanned and overmatched in terms of talent with whoever they go up against. So this that has a chance to be kind of a, you know, a letdown game.

We talk about the letdown games. That could be a letdown game for the Bears at home. And the Bears haven't lost at home yet this year. They're undefeated at Soldier Field. Haven't won a game on the road yet, which also makes me, you know, a little bit worried about them going into this game against Arizona. You know, people are, like you said, they're questioning Matt Eberflus right now. Just the way that they lost that game to Washington, you'd have to wonder if that's going to have an emotional lingering effect going into this game as well. This is, yeah, I agree with you. I think this is a huge game for them.

I think for them to save their season, stay the in the conversation for you know a wild card spot potentially this is one that i think they got to have because they dropped to four and four now you're you got new england coming in that's going to be a scrappy team then you got green bay you have the vikings coming in after that then you go to detroit to san francisco then you come here to play the Vikings again. Then you got Detroit at home. This is, yeah, I think this is a must win for Chicago. If they don't get it done,

I think things are really going to start to fall apart for them. All right, I need your commentary on one other game this week. And I think you may know what game I'm getting at here. Mike Zimmer versus Kirk Cousins. this week and i think you may know what game i'm getting at here mike zimmer versus kirk cousins how didn't they flex this one i they should have just had both guys come to the 50 yard line on national tv and shake each other like they did after the uh win against the lions where kirk was screaming you like that and zimmer was taking it as a personal challenge for some reason. I don't know. I still don't really fully understand what happened there.

Uh, but Zimmer has been extremely clear to, the entire time that Kirk was with the Vikings that he didn't want him there. And then, uh, has never denied that publicly after. So, I'm sure had some some feelings as well about that whole situation who do you think wins the Zim v Kirk battle in Atlanta Atlanta's a hard team to figure out because they just feel

like the typical Kirk Cousins team. Yes, they do. At times, they look great and their offense is humming. And you're like, wow, look at Kirk Cousins. He's balling out. And then they will have a letdown game where the offense is very inconsistent. And then they end up losing a close game because they don't execute or they can't get a key stop on defense whatever the case may be um it's it's a tough one to predict because the cowboys are just they're just a mess right now and you know and you've got so much going you know they're they're banged up on defense obviously and even when their defense has been healthy they they haven't been very good this year.

And then you get all the stuff with Jerry Jones, all of that stuff happening. Dak Prescott, we're questioning his leadership ability with that team now as well again. It just feels like typical Cowboys. So I'm going to go with Atlanta to win this game at home. But I think in typical Kirk Cousins-led team fashion, I think it's going to be a close game. I think it has a chance to have a lot of points scored

because I don't think either defense is very good. And it's going to be – I think we're going to see some fireworks. Be curious to see if there's any interaction between Zim and Kirk on the field. I'm going to say no. Probably not. I'm going to say no. Probably not. I'm going to say no. I'm going to say they stay as far away from each other as they can. I'm just looking for, like, if they just happen to, like,

bump into each other. Not that they, like, seek out each other to, like, meet up and catch up. If they just happen to, like, you know, Kirk is talking to somebody. I don't know if there's a former Viking on the Cowboys or something that he would be talking to, a former teammate or something. He's talking to that person, and then Zimmer just happens to walk by or something.

I'd be curious to see what that interaction, if there is one at all, what that would look like. The awkwardness meter up to the red 10 it explodes between those two i think i already know how it's going to play out here's how it's going to play out so it's back and forth battle zimmer's defense can't really slow down the weapons because they don't have micah parsons they're banged up they're not pressuring kirk we know what happens when they're not pressuring kirk but atl Atlanta's defense also stinks. So Dak Prescott's getting it back together. People are talking about how Dak's finding it.

CD lamb is going all over the place on them. I think you can run the ball against Atlanta too. So they're finally getting that rolling along. And then Dak Prescott gets banged up and Cooper rush comes in the game. He's still there backup. He's still their backup, right? I think he is. Yeah, I think he is. I don't know. I truly don't know. But stay with me here.

This is spooky stories, okay? So here's what happens. Cooper Rush comes in the game. Kirk scores to give them a six-point lead. Cooper Rush leads the game-winning drive. And then all of Atlanta debates, whether it was Kirk's fault or not that they lost to Zimmer. That's how it has to go.

Or, or let me put, actually put it this way. Kirk leads them to a field goal to put them up six, not a touchdown. So then that opens the door for a Cooper rush game winning drive to win by one. That's how that ends up playing out.

And then Zimmer fist pumps, they show them on TV. Yeah. Anyway, I'll be checking that game out since I won't be busy in the afternoon. I will definitely be peeking in on that one. Okay. Two more things. We got definitely be peeking in on that one. That's going to be fun. Two more things we got.

One is your all-time Colts list, and our other is Underdog Fantasy and the picks for the game. So why don't we get to your all-time favorite Indianapolis Colts, Manny? And I see that the system here has some Halloween music. Can I play this? Let's do it. Let me see if I can get this to work. Kind of creepy.

Okay. Halloween football is football music. I like it. It sounds sort of football-y. Yeah. Okay. I like it. Yeah. All right. It actually football-y. Yeah. Okay. I like it. Yeah.

All right. It actually sounds like both. Yeah. Okay. Okay. Number five, my favorite Colts of all time. I think a very underrated running back for a handful of years with the Colts. Played in two Super Bowls with them, Joseph Adai.

Oh, wow. See, last night, people were wondering, is Manny going to go Chuck or is Manny going to go a little bit off the beaten trail? And immediately with Joseph Adai, because I'm thinking, oh, he must be talking about Edger and James, but no! Joseph Adai. Good call. Yeah,

Joseph Adai was one of my favorites. Edger and James, obviously, one of the all-time greats in the Hall of Fame. But Joseph Adai was kind of took over as a rookie for the Colts in 2006 and was on that Super Bowl winning team after Edrin James had left in free agency and went to Arizona. But just a reliable guy, had some injuries here and there throughout his career, didn't have a very long career.

But when he was out there, he was just kind of a steady guy. Really good pass catcher. I think he had 10 catches in that Super Bowl against the Bears. I always kind of thought maybe he should have been the MVP as Peyton Manning didn't really have a great statistical performance in that game. But he leaned on

Joseph Adai a lot in that game. And Adai was really reliable. Ended up playing on that next Super Bowl team with the Colts in 09 that lost to the Saints and I think he had scored a touchdown in that game too. But yeah, Joseph Adai, number five of my favorite Colts of all

time. I thought that he could have been the MVP for sure in that Super Bowl. Like that pick. If anybody has seen the Edgeron James of football life, go watch that. It is so, so interesting. All right, carry on. Number four, I did go chalk a little bit here.

Peyton Manning is number four for me, obviously. Not a hot take. Not a hot take. Probably the greatest player in Colts history um just with all the mvps and you know it kind of goes without saying with him former tennessee vol you know i'm a big tennessee vols fan um obviously payton's probably the greatest player in tennessee vols history as well uh did not win a national championship though that went to uh t martin the year after payton left but uh yeah peyton manning

number four on my list so i wonder now for you of course you are a huge tennessee fan so i'm not surprised that you loved peyton manning when peyton manning was playing i don't know how loved he was outside of indianapolis and he was revered of of course, and statistically unbelievable, one of the greatest statistical quarterbacks of all time. But he blew it in a lot of playoffs early in his career, and he had some very arrogant moments calling out the kicker, calling him the stupid kicker, blaming his offensive line early in his career after.

Was that maybe Pittsburgh that they had blown a home playoff game and called out the offensive line? The Pittsburgh game where Vanderjack shanked the kick at the end. And, yeah. He said something like, we had some problems with protections. Yeah. I remember that. Yeah, and he wasn't always the most entertaining player to watch.

He would methodically bring everyone on the line of scrimmage. We kind of hop around back there and he would make great throws of course, but it wasn't Dante call pepper. It wasn't Mike Vick. It wasn't high entertainment value. It wasn't Roethlisberger early in his career where he would scramble all over the place. I, I just don't know if people loved him like relative to how much he was great like the way that they love Mahomes I think the nation loves Mahomes he's hard not to love because of the way

that he acts the way that he plays is so entertaining I think I think people were maybe a little annoyed with Peyton Manning as good as he was and that's honestly part of the reason why I don't have him number one on this list. Because, I mean, obviously with everything that he accomplished, he's, like I say, he's probably the greatest player in franchise history. But even like as a Tennessee fan, my personal fandom leans more towards T. Martin than it does Peyton Manning because of like, T just came in right away after Peyton left and they went and defeated won the national championship and uh so T's always kind of been like my favorite low-key favorite Tennessee

ball like quarterback ever because of because of that and I've always had some fun like just sort of giving Peyton Manning some crap like yeah he was great but there's no t martin you know so that whole thing all right number three number three this is probably going to talk a little bit to the great great great johnny unitas um i think just because obviously i'm much too young to remember him to or to see him play but you know he was kind of like the first like true like drop back thrower that we saw in like the modern NFL of like the last you know 50 years or so um just a great passer great you know so iconic and you know before Peyton came around he was sort of the viewed as the identity of the you know Baltimore slash Indianapolis Colts.

Yeah, I think he was, I mean, Otto Graham was the original goat, right? That back in the day, had they called things goat, then they would have said it about Otto Graham. But Johnny Unitas was right there with him when it came to that. When he was in his prime, he was thought of as the best, the untouchable, greatest quarterback. And I also thought it was great that there was a bit of a foil to Joe Namath, you know, with the NFL versus the AFL, and Namath's got the hair and everything. Without the Colts, without Johnny Unitas, even though he didn't start that game,

is that right? They brought him in, in that famous game. Cause I think he was older in his career at that point, but it was still the, you know, the, the haircut, the, the Johnny Unitas haircut. Um, but he was considered a great playmaker too, and would scramble around and was an entertaining quarterback, but it was, well, name it. They got this really cool guy who's so much fun. He's got this huge arm and everything else. I think that plays into NFL lore when it comes to Johnny Unitas, but you legitimately cannot go more chalk than that

with putting him on a top five favorite Colts list. But I know that you love NFL films, NFL history, and certainly he's all over that. Number two on my list is, maybe not so so chalky he's a very good player but maybe not so uh remembered as much as uh bob sanders the safety bob sanders who was um just a really really good good defensive player really good safety you know always just battled some injuries in his career but But when he was out there, he was he covered well. He made plays in the defensive backfield. You know, he hit people really hard. He was a very physical player, even though he wasn't super big for a safety. But I always just really respected him and admired him as a player. He was one of my favorite players to watch. Didn't have the longest career because he played like a total psychopath. But when he was at his best, he was the best player at that position other than Ed Reed, Troy Palomaro. But he was

right there on their level, just did not have the opportunity to play as long. But I really loved watching Bob Sanders play. It's a great pick. And number one, my favorite Colts player ever is just a guy that was the consummate professional and just really productive. And I'm actually not talking about Marvin Harrison. I'm talking about Reggie Wayne. Okay, yeah. Number one on my list.

You know, Reggie Wayne was kind of that bridge between the two eras of quarterbacks with the Colts, with Peyton Manning first, and then he stuck around when Andrew Luck came in. And he was a big help for Andrew Luck early on in his career as sort of a veteran receiver that he could rely on. And I just remember the touchdown in the Super Bowl that he scored against the Bears. It was wide open. It was like a busted coverage for the Bears or something. He walked into the end zone. I just remember the fist pump that he had was pretty cool. And I remember watching a video of him and Justin Jefferson.

I think it was the NFL Films thing from like last year or two years ago, maybe. And it was just really good to see like those two guys kind of link up and connect and have some fun just talking about being a great wide receiver. So Reggie Wayne, uh, my favorite cold player of all time, just a, just a consummate pro and, uh, one of my favorites. That's a, that's a great pick. And actually, if you were doing a, like, who does Justin Jefferson remind you of, uh, Reggie Wayne is probably somebody who's up there because a big guy, he's not the most quick twitchy shake people with this route running but contested catches put the ball up for him go up and get it i mean i

think uh all of those elements for him the hand just sheer hands so talking about how we were just standing around at practice waiting for press conference today we were standing behind justin jefferson and he was playing catch with somebody that was about 25 yards away. And the person threw him the ball, and he caught it with one hand, just like, doop, just like it was a baseball with a baseball glove, doop, and threw it back on a line 30 yards, just no, like he had done it 10,000 times with the one-handed catch. I mean, the man is just freakishly talented.

And I feel like the same thing was for Reggie Wayne. The hands, those huge, giant fingers that were going up to get the ball. That's a really good pick. The previous era of Indianapolis Colts is fun to kind of pick over. The Jim Harbaugh era with like captain comeback, Roosevelt pots always stuck out to me for saying that his big fullback who they would just play. He had this big playoff game and they never handed to him again. The Bill Brooks era was a really good wide receiver for them. They were kind of a calamity

before that, but the Marshall Falk falls under the category of a great Indianapolis Colt. But I always liked Bill Brooks as their wide receiver. You could throw Dwight Freeney into this mix. Edger and James definitely would have made my list for this one. If you go back a ways, you've got someone like Ray Buchanan, Tony Siragusa, Eric Dickerson, some good choices here for the Indianapolis Colts. All right, let's get into our underdog fantasy hires and lowers for this game. And I'm very curious about how you think things are going to play out. And a reminder that underdog fantasy presenter of this show, the easiest place to play fantasy

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concerned with your play call 1-800-GAMBLER or visit ncpgambling.org all right i wonder what you think about we're going to start with jordan addison does jordan Addison go higher or lower than 41.5 yards I'm gonna say higher because I think there's going to be a concerted effort to get him the football early and probably often in this game on Sunday so I'll say higher I also agree with you on this I mean this should be a main priority for them and i just think you don't want more of that from jordan addison he expressed his frustration anybody can claim that he didn't but we all know what you were doing you can't sneak anything by on the internet now it's 2024 and especially i think someone said that his dad also threw a quote tweet out there about free three so whatever even even we went over this the

other day but you just can't really do something that makes you look that way nonetheless the offense needs jordan addison to function unless they're trading him for jeffrey simmons probably not now how about his partner in crime though justin jefferson 86.5 yards for Justin Jefferson. Would you go higher or lower there? I'll go lower, but not much lower than that. So I'll say lower. Okay. So you're thinking that they spread the ball around, get it to TJ Hawkinson more often.

Yep. Maybe not quite as much Justin Jefferson. I think there's logic in that. So Sam Darnold, how much is he throwing 251.5 yards for Sam Darnold passing? Does he go higher or lower than that? That's a good question. I'm going to say higher because I do think with Joe Flacco starting this game, I think the Vikings defense is going to play a little bit better than they have than, you know, the previous two games against the Lions and Rams. But I think with Joe Flacco playing,

I think the Colts are going to move the ball a little bit and they're going to put some points on the board. And I think that's going to then force Sam Darnold to probably throw the ball a little more often in this game. So I'll say higher. Was it 25 a 2 251 uh 251.5 yep yeah i'll say higher than that a shade higher because i do think they want to lean into the passing game more on this one uh two more 1.5 touchdowns for joe flacco does joe

flacco manage two touchdowns against the Minnesota Vikings? I'll say yes, higher. I think it'll be right at two. Yeah, two makes sense to me. They're going to move the ball a little and score. I don't think that Indianapolis in the national TV game with a quarterback who's been playing well, really over a big sample of play, good running back, good offensive line is going to just get shut out by the Vikings defense. We've seen some weaknesses. So I think that he will throw the ball a little bit. I will give you a funny one. There's a Viking killer on this team.

Now they only played once really against that. They played maybe twice, but this guy just gives them problems. Mo Alleycox, five touchdowns, but you get five times your money. If he scores one, would you take the odds with Mo Alleycox to score a touchdown against the Vikings higher or lower one? Is Blake Cashman back?

Doesn't really look great. I'll say higher. Mo'Ally Cox. Yeah. Higher. If Blake Cashman were playing, I would probably have a little more confidence that they could, you know,

maybe shore that up and not let that really be a factor. But yeah, I'll say he'll get in the end zone. All right. Tell me how this plays out, Manny. I think there's going to be some points on the board. I think the Vikings are going to win. I think being at home, I think will help them.

That'll be good. I think they'll feel pretty good about getting back home after that tough trip out to LA and having a little bit of time off with sort of the mini bye. I think they're going to come away with a win. I think both teams are going to score some points. I'll say the Vikings win this game 31 to 27. Oh, okay. That's a lot of points to give up.

I'm going to go a little lower. I am going to go 24-20 that they win. I'm going to go with a four-point win. The Colts cover, but they do not pull off a victory against the Vikings at US Bank Stadium. They grind out the win and do give up some points. We've still got questions to ask. I also have, I guess, a lot of questions still about

how they're going to stop certain parts of this offense, especially Jonathan Taylor, how they're going to deal with another good offensive line, which they faced two weeks ago with the lions. But I'll say that they answer enough of those questions and also leave us going. Are they going to be Jacksonville? Are they going to be the Titans?

We will find out. So Mr. Hill, we will do it again on Monday and we'll see what we've got to work with then. I just has there before we end, has there been a bigger if you win, if you lose gap than this in, I don't want to say recent Vikings history, because I may have said this before for other games, but if they win this game, they're six and two and everybody can calm the f down after losing their minds last week and you're going into the the stretch run here it'll be

very exciting it's a good team if they lose may god have mercy on these live streams. I mean, because it just, I know where that conversation has to go at that point. I spent the whole week, Manny, saying, look, it's tough losses by not a lot of points against some really good quarterbacks. This team is still on track. They're playing a team that's not very good at three teams that aren't very good going forward.

The opportunity is still right there in front of them to have a great season not a ton has changed i will have no argument whatsoever if they lose to the indianapolis colts to say that i will say sound the alarms this thing is falling apart because that's that's got to be the truth if you lose three games in a row yeah i mean if you if you lose this game it's the the talk of 2016 is going to be that's that's where everybody's going to go it's going to be like it's the same thing started out five and oh then completely fell apart after that had some injuries and the defense didn't didn't perform quite as well you know that's going to be it's

going to be the first thing everybody's going to talk about is 2016 if they lose this game. So I think this game is huge. I think they got to, they got to go into that game, take care of business, go to six and two. It's, it's amazing that it's just one game, but it, it really is going to swing the pendulum, I think in, in complete opposite directions, depending on how this game turns out. And by the same token, I think it also should swing the approach to the trade deadline, because if they go to five and three, don't give up any assets. It's just not worth it. You go to six and two. Okay. You are right on track and you should add someone and try to go win something. It's, it's crazy how this league works. And that is why we love it.

All right, let's go watch some terrible Thursday night football. I saw on Adam Schefter tweeted it, so it popped up. I saw that somebody went in to score a touchdown and then dropped the ball too early, just like Kyle Pitts absolutely did. And Antoine Winfield knocked it out of his hand. So that may be what you're dealing with on Thursday night football. So enjoy that. And we will talk to you all very soon.

Thanks a lot, Manny. Appreciate your time as always. We'll see you. Football.