Purple Insider - a Minnesota Vikings and NFL podcast - POSTGAME: JJ McCarthy clutch as Vikings defeat Lions

Episode Date: November 3, 2025

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Regulator, mount up, we're coming. Hey, everybody, welcome into the Purple Insider, Minnesota Vikings postgame show, presented by Fandul, Matthew Collar, along with Dane Mizatani inside Ford Field as the Minnesota Vikings defeat the Detroit Lions. It was a game where the Vikings were not anywhere close to the favorite coming in against the Lions. Detroit was coming off of a big win and then a buy week. The Vikings were coming off getting blasted by the Los Angeles Chargers. But there were a lot of players who played in this game that have not been 100% healthy this year. And the big takeaway for me, Dane, is this was the Minnesota Vikings of 2025 that we expected.

We expected a team with two really good tackles, with an outside linebacker who was a second team all pro, with all of the players healthy that they were expected to have, including their quarterback, J.J. McCarthy. We expected that there was going to be ups and downs, even inside of a game for McCarthy. We thought that there was going to be occasional inaccuracies for McCarthy or moments where you go, KOC, why didn't you run the football? Why would you make J.J. throw in that situation? And we did have a few of those today. But we also expected interior pressure with the Vikings ahead

and causing lots of problems with their blitzes and with their stunts and twists for Javon Hargrave and Jonathan Allen. And finally, we saw all of those things come together and culminate in a win for J.J. McCarthy. And another thing we expected, after watching training camp, after getting to know J.J. McCarthy, after interviewing every single person who's ever met this guy at this point and asking him every single question we had about learning and growing and all those things, but not actually seeing him play. One of the things that we thought is that he could deliver in the biggest moments, that he could deliver with the Ford Field being at its

loudest. And we saw him do that. Kevin O'Connell, you can hate what he did at the end of the game to give the Lions another chance, trying to throw passes with McCarthy. And you can love what he did having him throw on third down to convert a game winning player, game ending play to Jalen Naylor. But the bigger picture here is the Minnesota Vikings back to 500. The NFC North is wide open. And now we go from thinking this season is over. It's all about J.J. McCarthy. And what a difference a week makes. Now the season feels back on. There's a ton of juice. And if they can continue to be this team, then it all looks so much different than it did just a couple of days ago, Dane. Yeah, I mean, it really was going into this, if it felt like, at least to me, if they don't

win this game, the season is done. And maybe it's not like the season is done. They're going to be in contention for the number one pick. But for all intents and purposes, if you lost this game, the uphill climb to get back into playoff picture in the NFC was going to be very tough. The uphill climb to get back into relevance in the NFC North was going to be very tough. So to come in here today and beat a divisional opponent, one that you were, I think, favorite to lose by, I think the line closed at minus nine and a half, so nobody thought the Vikings were going to even have a puncher's chance today,

let alone a chance to pull the upset. The fact that you were able to come in here and do your job and walk out victorious now getting back to 500, making up a game on the Lions, making up a game on the Green Bay Packers who lost to the Carolina Panthers, and nearly making up a game on the Chicago Bears who almost blew it against Cincinnati Bengals, I think it shows exactly what you said. The NFC North is all of a sudden wide open, and yes, the Vikings are firmly in that fight. What stood out to me today, though, JJ McCarthy.

I mean, I was hard on the kid after his loss to the Atlanta Falcons. He didn't look very good in that game. But I think what has kind of hung in the balance over the last month and a half is that you would have thought J.J. McCarthy lost 10 games in a row before he hurt his ankle. In the grand scheme of his career, it was still very young. He was one in one. He had played two games, both in prime time, big stages. He had not had a regular kind of Sunday to Sunday schedule in a way that you can kind of start to piece together growth, which is why I think today was. so big. I mean, you'll look at the stats, I'm right here, 14 of 25 for 143 yards, two touchdowns, a pick also added a touchdown with his legs. We were talking about this before we turned on the camera, but there was a 33-yard pass to Aaron Jones that ended up going as a run. The stats

could look better. But the point of it is when he had to come through, he did. When the Vikings needed him to break, contain, break a tackle in the open field, and score a touchdown with his legs, he did. When Kevin O'Connell said, screw that, I'm not going run, run, run, punt. I'm going run, run, and here's the keys to the car on third down, go win us the football game. When he needed to come through, he did. He's done that at every step of his career, high school, college, now at the professional level, he does seem to have an it factor about him when the moments are kind of dialed up. So I think right now what you can take away is the fact that this was a huge moment, not just for the Vikings, not just for their season in 2025, but for J.J. McCarthy. Was he perfect

today? No. We're going to get into, you know, like there are inaccuracy issues that are going to continue to kind of come up, I think for a little bit here until he kind of gets his, you know, feet really out under him, literally and figuratively. But what we did see was enough to kind of say, okay, now let's take the next step. Let's take the next step. And that's all I think we were looking for today. The Vikings could have lost this game. And I, still would have thought, in the grand scheme of life, J.J. McCarthy did enough to keep you interested. Not only did he do that, he also won the football game and got them back into the fight. So all across the board, I know it wasn't just him. It was a great

effort by the defense, a great effort by special teams, great effort by the offense outside of just J.J. McCarthy. But right now, and I think regardless of what happens the rest of the way, this season for all intents and purposes, is all about J.J. McCarthy. Today was a huge day frame. Now, how funny does it look that there's nine games left to go and things feel much more within reach because all they needed was to win this game and the Packers to lose to Carolina, but that seemed like there was about a 5% chance of that happening. The National Football League, my friends, but let's go back to the very beginning of this game because this to me is where the game was won, which was early on, where the Detroit Lions convert a fourth down. Sam LaPorta

drags three Vikings non-tacklers this year into the end zone and we're going okay well look I guess this is just one of the worst defenses in the league and hey they attack the middle again who would have ever expected the thing they've done time and time again and maybe some folks were even getting a little snarky on the internet about it but for the Vikings to return and return fire with a score there

pretty quickly and then score again with J.D. J. McCarthy and to have him look sharp, and I think that one of the biggest throws for him was actually one that did not get caught, where they sent Jordan Addison deep down the sideline. He tries to throw a drop it in the bucket pass, and it bounces off Addison's hands. It would have been an unbelievable catch if he brought it in, but it was flawlessly accurate. It had great touch on it. And I think right from that minute, J.J. McCarthy was like, all right, yeah, there we go. Like, that's the touch that we've been talking about. That's the technical stuff that we've been talking about with him throwing down the field.

And he delivered a great pass there. And some of the other stuff was just really well designed. And there was some plays where he was rolling out and then throwing back across his body to Hawkinson in the end zone. But just felt like getting a little bit of that first throw down the field out of the way. And I also want to talk about the duality of Kevin O'Connell because we talk about it all the time, the run. versus the pass and the play calling and all those sorts of things. But one thing that we know about Kevin O'Connell is that he is going to put the game on the shoulders of the quarterback for better or worse.

And at times with Carson Wentz, it's been worse. Even I felt like at times in this game, it's been for worse, where McCarthy was struggling with the accuracy and they were getting pressure and he just kept saying, you know, I'm going to throw the ball still. But from the outset of the game, they did hand off a couple times. Jones gets a couple good runs, but just saying, you know what, JJ, I believe in you, and I'm going to put my money where my mouth is. And, you know, he did this a lot with Sam Darnold last year, where we were saying, hey, just play it safe with Sam Darnold early in the season before we knew. And he was like, you know, 97-yard touchdown.

And that throw right there felt like a, JJ, you are running this team. I am not going to try to put you in a box and play super conservative. You are running our offense as our quarterback, and I believe in you to take a shot down the field and really try to change this game early. So getting him into a rhythm early on felt extremely important, and to have that opening script work out the way that it did, get Aaron Jones going. You mentioned that swing pass that goes down officially as a run, but that was just a really nice designed play where it looks like, I believe they had Mason and Jones, if I'm thinking of the right play. They had Mason and Jones on the field at the same time, which I would love to see. going forward. Everybody sells out to stop the run play. Jones sneaks out. Like there were some of those. And I am willing to forgive in a situation with J.J. McCarthy, the times where we thought,

yeah, you probably should have run instead of past at the goal line. I think we all know that. Or at very least, McCarthy needs to get down if he's running, like just get down and make sure that you keep the clock going. But if what Kevin O'Connell is going to do, the rest of the season with J.J. McCarthy is buy into him, believe him, put it on his shoulders, and let him throw the ball. Sometimes it's going to fly 50 miles over Justin Jefferson's head, and sometimes he's going to make an awesome play like beating Alex Anzolone. And that was the type of thing we talked about after the Chicago game, the athletic plays that can make up for some of the either inexperience or hanging on to the ball too long. If O'Connell's just going to say, you know what,

you guys can criticize me all you want for not running enough, but JJ, JJ, JJ. I'm pounding that button. To me, that's great. And it worked out for the most part in this game. Yeah, I mean, it's all about empowering your young quarterback, right? And I think Kevin O'Connell probably wishes his own career went differently in terms of somebody empowering him. I think he understands the importance of making this young quarterback feel like he can do anything. And I think the fact that Kevin O'Connell believes in him, the fact that on third down, late in the game, final minutes,

he believes in him enough to throw the football. I think that does a lot. That does more than just win the Vikings this football game. That's little nuggets of trust that are going to continue to get built up more and more and more over the course of this season, over the course of J.J. McCarthy's career. But I thought early in the game, you mentioned how O'Connell found completions for J.J. McCarthy. I thought what J.J. McCarthy did well, though, was find ways to just give his guys a chance. the Jordan Addison throw up the left side that didn't go down as a completion.

That was one where he just gave his guy a chance. The Justin Jefferson touchdown that is an incredible one-handed grab by JJ, something we've come to expect. That's just simply J.J. McCarthy seeing one-on-one coverage and giving his guy a chance. You saw it all across the game today from early, middle, and late. The Justin Jefferson touchdown, J.J. McCarthy trusting his guy. The catch by Jordan Addison, which was pretty incredible before the T.J. Hawkinson touchdown on the second drive of the game, that's just J.J. McCarthy, knowing there's going to be a void and vacancy on the left side of the field and tossing it up and saying, Jordan Addison, go make a play for me. Again, that was just giving a guy a chance and then J.L. Naylor at the end. I think for J.J. McCarthy, so early in his career, to one, be empowered by his head coach, but then to understand the incredible playmakers you have helping you along is going to be huge for. him moving forward.

This was like, I can't overstate how important of a game this was just for his career, for his growth. I think whether he pays attention to what's being said about him or not is irrelevant, but I do think he feels kind of the weight of where this thing could have headed if they lost today. So the fact that he was able to kind of put it all together in a way that they walk off the field victorious, huge in every respect moving forward. And you mentioned that throw to Jefferson for the touchdown.

And that's why even with like game theory being sort of tossed aside at the end of the game when they need to run the ball with Jordan Mason in the red zone, I don't even know why you have them if you're not ever going to do the thing that you need to do there. But there's a throw to Jefferson one-on-one. And once again, it is Kevin O'Connell saying, hey, J.J. McCarthy, go make a play. I'm not going to take the ball out of your hands. And what popped into my head in the final play with Jalen Naylor, which is a spectacular throw and catch. And McCarthy said that he's been telling Jalen Naylor, like, you're going to do this at some point because on tape I see it.

I feel like we've been saying it on a weekly basis of like if they could just get Jalen Naylor going, that he is open and he can make plays. And we feel like he had a good camp connection with J.J. McCarthy, which I think Addison did too and Hawkinson did too. and then they just never got to see it. But calling those plays, I remembered when Mike Zimmer didn't trust Kirk Cousins in the playoff game in 2019 that they actually end up winning, but did not trust them at the end of the game

in a similar situation. They handed off three times. They punted the ball back to the Saints. They tied the game. They went to overtime. The Vikings end up winning. But you will not see that from Kevin O'Connell. In fact, we were sitting next to each other

with Alex Lewis to Kevin Sefer. and it's so freaking loud in here. We're screaming at each other, and I'm going, they're going to call a pass play, and to, you know, is it going to run? And to me, it was a guarantee that they were going to throw a pass there because O'Connell was going to put it on McCarthy's shoulders. Now, as you said, it was not a perfect game from him, and we'll continue to break him down for a second here.

We'll get to the defense. We'll get to the bigger picture. There is a throw behind Nailer that turns into an interception. I think you can argue all day long. How in the world do the refs figure out that it didn't hit the ground, which I thought it did? I thought it was going to be an incompletion. How actually Terry and Arnold had the football and not Jalen Naylor when the tie is supposed to go to the receiver. Look to me like that was 50-50, but they give him that ball.

That's a bad throw by J.J. McCarthy. That ball needs to be out in front of him. It needs to lead him correctly into the football and he's got 15 or 20 yards. I mentioned the one where he was scrambling and he flew it over just to Jefferson. Ted, and he said after the game, like some of those throws on the run were just terrible. And to me, that's where you can get into a better rhythm from just playing, where you've been practicing the throws on time and you can try to simulate running away from Aden Hutchinson all you want in practice.

But the real running away from Aiden Hutchinson is much more fight or flight freaking out. So he's got to control some of that stuff. And I think with the accuracy overall, what we want to see from here is just growth from week to week when it comes to that that you are going to have to deal with and just the Jefferson will by the way not a catch don't really fully understand I guess by the letter of the law as Jefferson is diving he doesn't fully control it before it hits the ball my question is how is anyone ever supposed to catch a ball where they dive and if we're eliminating as a league all diving catches if the ball scrapes the little bit of the pellets in the turf and it isn't

perfectly secured. That sucks for great catches. And we've seen two of them by the Vikings get eliminated. I think they got to take a little bit of a look at that specific play where, look, I mean, could you even see that the ball was moving? Anyway, but that ball's not accurate. Jefferson is absolutely wide open. So we're going to have to see improvements there. I think he checked a ton of boxes. The operation was okay. There were two or three different times where he went to hand off on the wrong side. There were a couple of times. where the clock was winding down, but we didn't see too many jumps offside. We didn't see the delay of game penalties.

And when I tell you, this place was going crazy. I mean, this is as loud, almost as U.S. Bank Stadium, if not as loud. So him being able to work his way through two road victories in the NFC North, both of which required clutch plays from him, and both had some moments where he can improve on and were pretty ugly. I think overall is a major victory for J.J. McCarthy. And as I said, exactly what we expected. We all came into this after watching camp saying, yeah, there's going to be some throws that you're just not going to think came from Joe Montana. But at the same time, he's going to fight through those. And that's exactly what he did. Yeah. And I think that's the exciting part. If you walked away

from this game saying J.J. McCarthy couldn't play any better. And then they still barely won. I mean, you'd still take the win, but you would then feel like how much more, where is the upward trajectory headed? There was so much meat left on the bone, and they still managed to win the game. Like, I think that is something that you can kind of latch on to, and I think Kevin O'Connell will. I think there was obviously an excitement to win this football game, but I think the fact that they can be so much better is a reason to feel like maybe this team can just find something. McArthur said it himself after the game. We've barely scratched the surface. And I think that's totally fair. It's coach speak. It's cliche. But it's also true. He's played three games now in the NFL. He's won two of them. He's lost one of them. He's played one game now with both of his

tackles. He's played one game now with his entire operation looking the way he thought it was going to look. So to the trajectory is, I think it could be just a steady upward curve for the Vikings from here on out. I will say when you look at J. Jim McCarthy, you just break down some of his best throws compared to where he's struggled. If he can play rhythm and timing, and Kevin O'Connell talks about rhythm and timing all the time, you'll hear him talk about rhythm and timing, beaten eyes. But it's true. If J.J. McCarthy can play in the rhythm and timing of a play, get a solid base, see where he wants to throw and let it rip, you're going to see the throws like he makes to Justin Jefferson, the throw he makes to Jordan Addison, the throw he

to Jalen Naylor. There was also like a sneaky throw to Jordan Addison before J.J. McCarthy ran nine yards for the touchdown and juked out Alex Anzolone, where it was just one, two, three, back foot, fired to the sideline on a rope to Jordan Addison couldn't be more perfect of a throw. When he can play in the rhythm of the timing of this offense,

you see the potential of he can just do this more consistently, how special could this look. But then I think when you look at some of the deficiencies, it should give you almost like an excitement level of well if he can just get rid of some of these like he can be so much better like when he has struggled i think it's because he's he's not permanent in his base he's not sturdy he's running off you know off script outside i think something with him that tends to happen is when he gets fired up in the in the over the course of a play or feels like he's under pressure and like he that's when they start to sail it's It's when he's totally firm, steady in the pocket that we can see, you know, the potential of this kid. So there's, look, it's game three of his career. I think it's going to look way different in game 10 of his career.

And I think that's why, like, last year was so damaging to his growth is because he didn't get those reps in practice. It's why the past six weeks were so damaging for his growth. Because truthfully, if he plays like he did against the Falcons and struggles, and then he plays the next week and it does okay, like it's just steady growth. It's just part of the process. But because so much time hung in between, there were question marks. I think he answered a lot of those questions today, though, with his overall performance. But I also, like, the teammates who stepped up for him, too. They had his back.

The one thing that I thought stood out in his press conference after the game, Alec Lewis asked him, like, just what was it like to walk back into the room after? And he got choked up. J.J. McCarthy teared up and said, like, it's killed him to miss the past month. and a half, but he felt like his teammates had his back. They did figuratively in the sense of they know he's his guy, he's their guy, but they also did literally today. Like the Vikings do not win this game just on the back and shoulders of J.J. McCarthy. Total group effort, totally all three phases. And like you said, the Vikings team that we thought we would be covering, that you

thought you would be watching kind of finally showed itself. And now they're four and four game on the rest of the way. So my two moments of this game to me that told the entire story are, well, okay, let me say three. We talked about the throw to Jalen Naylor at the end of the trust. So that's number one. Number two is the run in where he juks out Alex Anzolone to go in for a touchdown. Anzolone's an amazing player.

And to be able to do that, for how many years did we do post games and talk about how a scrambling quarterback, a guy who has athleticism, a guy who, not afraid to make a play with his legs that can beat somebody and go run in for a touchdown. I think as we go forward, if there's something, and we've seen this with a lot of young quarterbacks, Drake May, Bo Nix, if there's something that can guide them through those ups and downs, I think the quarterbacks that have to stay in the pocket, your penics or Bryce Young, like, he gets out a little bit, but he's not a runner. I think that the running can even out some of the ups and downs. And that play to me was special. I remember we talked about

this coming out of the combine about this quickness that he had. And remember when he played the gophers, I was in the stadium when he played the gophers, he had this exact same play where he was scrambling and he needed to beat a linebacker one-on-one and he beat them. Like that quickness, that running ability is a difference maker. And that's something that Carson Wentz couldn't do. It's something that Kirk Cousins couldn't do. We saw it a little bit from Sam Darnold. I think he's much quicker than Sam Darnold and has to lean into those types of plays. There were a few times where he tried to throw it and he was disappointed that he didn't didn't throw it more accurately, where I thought, dude, you might get 10 yards.

And they even ran a play that was a zone read where he ran it for, I think, seven, maybe seven or eight. And even the blown up play at the end of the game where he turns the wrong way as the running back or the running back goes the wrong way, who knows, he still gets four yards and a positive play because of his quickness and his playmaking. And then you mentioned the post game. I thought where it was really the most telling in the post game was the moment you were talking about where he just poured out.

a little bit. And you could tell he was trying to contain himself. It means a lot to him to be here. He said he's a Michigan man. He's from this state. He wore his go-to-work blue-collar shirt that Jim Harbaugh gave him at Michigan. It meant a lot to him. And I think that when he's talking about how much it kills him not to be on the field, you really see that. He's been sleeping in a different room from his baby to make sure that he's getting the proper amount of sleep. Like, I don't think any of us questioned the stuff that he was drafted for. And it if you go back through, and even when you read Tyler Dunn's piece on Caleb Williams, like some of his anonymous sources are talking about McCarthy and how much people saw in him

for a love and a joy for the game, that's been taken away from him so much. He's dealt with so much adversity. So to go through that, to get here, to come out, to throw two touchdowns right away, to finish the game while he did a storybook day for J.J. McCarthy. But as you said, he did not do it alone. And another thing when we talk about what we thought the 2025, Vikings were going to be. We thought they were going to be well coached. We thought they were going to be really well coached after last year. And through seven games, I think if we were doing

A through F, we would have been much more in the low C's than we would be in the A's. Can't say it's a perfect score here for today. But on the defensive side, the adjustment after early in the game, the struggles that they had to just start attacking the middle of a weak offensive line. I said to Nolan Bianchi, who was on the show earlier, previewing this game, who covers the Lions, I said, this was your Frank Ragnow game. So what they're all going to be writing on Detroit was, we really miss Frank Ragnow. And you could see that they decided we are going to make their inexperienced offensive linemen pick apart where Eric Wilson's coming from, where Andrew Van Ginkle, who is really damn good, where he was lining up. And also those stunts, those twists, those rushes from Javon Hargrave, I talked to Hargrave for just a minute after the game.

He's not the biggest talker. He's not like, you know, the media guy, really. But you could tell how good he felt about that. Like, he's taken a lot of punches, including from us, talking about it. But when this defense has the right circumstances with this front seven, today was one of those, oh, yeah. And what have we always said about Jared Goff? This is the pro-Jarid Goff show. and he almost, almost, but what have we always said?

If you can pressure him heading into this game, his quarterback rating when pressured or PFF grade when pressured was a 30. He's always been one of the worst quarterbacks under pressure. Once his feet were not stable underneath him because guys were coming at him, totally different quarterback. And where they should be their most proud was shutting down Jemir Gibbs, shutting down the run. So now they've faced Jemir Gibbs and Saquan Barkley.

And neither one of them have had. had a day. I think that a lot of things on defense, Dane, and we'll talk about the concerns, but a lot of the things that they did today were proof of circumstances matter to defenses a ton, and also with Van Ginkle back and the lineup they're supposed to have, and Cashman, who played an unbelievable game today, including a game-changing fumble, but he was everywhere in this game. I think this version of them is much, much, much closer to the elite type of defense that we were expecting. Yeah, and the truth is they probably exist somewhere in the middle.

Like today was as good of a defensive performance, given the circumstances. I know there were yards picked up by Jared Goff. We'll talk about the mistackles. It wasn't perfect, but given the circumstances, given how important this game was, given how dynamic the lines have looked at times this season, pretty damn good effort from the defense on the heels of just an abysmal effort in prime time. So I think the fact that they were able to kind of just turn the page and use it in a positive way, not just kind of curl up and say like, yeah, maybe this isn't it.

We've seen teams do that. We haven't seen Kevin O'Connell teams do that. We haven't seen Brian Flores' defenses do that. But we've seen teams in the NFL, one bad game turns into two bad games, turns into 10 bad games. I thought there was a chance that 387, 3810, whatever they lost to against the Chargers, with Justin Herbert destroying you, Kamani Vidal running all over you. I thought that if today looked a lot like it did last Thursday,

if Jared Goff tore him up the way Justin Herbert did, if Jemir Gibbs and David Montgomery tore him up the way Kamani Bidel did, if Amon-Raw St. Brown and Sam Laporta got after them, like Ladd-McConkie and Aranda Gadsden, I thought there could be a snowball effect on this defense, which is why it was so impressive to me that they were able to bounce back from that effort last. week, a week and a half ago, and put forth the effort they did today.

The stunts worked, and I think it was something where Brian Flores must have identified or whoever was going through the game plan with Brian Flores must have identified, these young centers and guards are not going to be able to pass off the stunts correctly. Because you saw, you know, there were times where Andrew Van Ginko was shooting a gap, and Blake Cashman was running around the outside. You saw free runners from Eric Wilson, who sneaky, maybe. be the best signing of the off season. Like he was signed to be a special teams guy and he's just been

dominant on defense. Amazing game today from Eric Wilson. Yeah, I mean, but like you saw there was a concerted effort like you said to attack the middle and there was a concerted effort to attack the middle with stunts and they worked over and over and over again. It got to a point where

I don't know, I'd have to go talk to Dan Campbell and talk to Jared Gough and talk to Jamir Gibbs and David Montgomery. But right after Eric Wilson absolutely vaporized Jamir Gibbs on a pass rush. Jamir Gibbs tried to step up and block him. Eric Wilson shoved him into the ground and then tackle Jared Gough. We didn't see Jemir Gibbs for another few drives. We also then saw David Montgomery pass block like you're supposed to and stand

Eric Wilson up in the hole. But I think all of those pieces, all of those parts of the game plan really showed up and yes, knocked Jared Gough off his spot. This is a guy who I've seen pick apart the Vikings defense at will. Pick apart Brian Flores' defense. defenses at will. It was the first time I can really remember, at least in the last couple of years, where Jerigoff looked uncomfortable. He looked like lost at times. He looked not ready, you know, to face the pressure that was coming at him. And I think that just takes away everything else that the defense or that they, they want to do on offense. So incredible performance from the defense, certainly not perfect. You got to make tackles. Jonathan Granard has to finish the sacks. He's getting

the pressures. You got to finish the play. You got to bring down Jerry golf in that. situation. Brian Murphy, you have to make that tackle on David Montgomery. Isaiah Rogers, you have to make that tackle on Jameson Williams. So not a perfect performance, but also not that dissimilar to the way we just talked about J.J. McCarthy. Good performance with a lot of meat left on the bone. I think that's kind of the story of the day is that they beat the Detroit Lions on the

road, 27 to 24, and it didn't feel like they played an A game. I feel like they played like a B-minus game. there's a lot of room left for this team to kind of keep growing offense, defense, and special teams. Well, I think on the defensive side, in terms of the things that they will be able to carry over and continue is having the entire roster. Andrew Van Ginkle, I spoke to him after the game in the locker room, and, you know, he's a very, like, straight kind of guy. Like, isn't the biggest, hey, media come to me kind of thing. But, I mean, you could tell how excited he was to be back out there. and he was trying to sort of contain the smile.

But everyone else was smiling as well because they didn't play Dallas Turner much. And I think that tells you about when Dallas Turner was out there, he has not developed to the point where he's anything but the weakness and teams could run against him. And he was not creating in terms of pass rush win rate. And he was not as dynamic. I mean, that is a swing player to the entire defense that mattered so much. But now we're learning, I think that Eric Wilson is that too, the right circumstances when they can stop the run, when they can set Detroit back. And Detroit set themselves back.

I mean, they had penalties. They had big mistakes. But some of the really most impressive plays in this game were swing passes, screens that we've seen Detroit turn into huge plays against this Vikings team. And they shut them down repeatedly. Those things, I think, can travel getting Josh Mattelis in the right position because Harrison Smith, who picks up a fumble, also had a huge pass knockdown in this game, blitzing like, oh, yeah, that's right. That's Harrison Smith, who's been out for a lot of this season or recovering to get to 100%, which now allows Mattelis to be in the box. They're a different team when that's the case. But there is still this weakness that exists that unless they make a trade, I don't know where it's going. And you saw at the end of the game where Isaiah Rogers is attacked down the field. Every team has now seen this. He got roasted by Devante Smith. He got roasted by Jameson Williams, who may have pushed off.

at the end, but still, like, that's, that's a guy who's a deep threat, very fast. Rogers clearly can run with anybody, but making plays on the football, I think is questionable. Tackling is seriously questionable. Byron Murphy missing a tackle was a huge miscue as well. And this is just a unit when Theo Jackson is out there who was, I think, evaluated for a concussion today. And then Isaiah Rogers, there are weaknesses in the secondary that if they want to go do something in the trade market which again wow like what a change of this is this is what happens when you assume that's

why there's that saying about assuming like don't ever assume that we know what the results are going to be in the NFL and how much can change because i would have bet you a gazillion dollars the vikings wouldn't be talking about buying and now you're like well maybe they might want to have a conversation because okuda looks like he's going to be out long term and rogers i think has shown to be a little more of a type player, a player that was a rotational guy in the past probably for a reason. So I don't know about that whole discussion. I guess we'll have to get into that through the rest of the week as the trade deadline is coming up.

Maybe Tyreek woolen, that's a 6-4 guy that Flores might love. But put that aside, the weaknesses are still going to be there. The idea was that the secondary could survive if you can pressure the quarterback. And the times where Jared Goff wasn't even that pressured and just missed and spiked the football in front of his receivers. Every quarterback is susceptible to pressures. Now, next week, it's going to be a completely different type of quarterback in Lamar Jackson and the Ravens coming in trying to save their season. And that's going to look a lot different. But as far as the defense goes, what you know now is that with the complete group that they can do this, I think that

also the results of this year show us going forward the number one thing that will determine whether this Vikings team is playing on the final weeks of the season, Christmas Day and then against the Packers, is whether they stay healthy. That is going to do it. I mean, today they got pressure on JJ, but Derisaw's out there, O'Neill's out there. They did a good job. I thought, I mean, look, it's evaluating Donovan Jackson's game is kind of hard right now. But even in the interior, there was some time, some pressure, some sacks, but overall, time to throw. and if he has time to throw, and if they do well there, they're going to win or play really close games.

And if the defense has all of its guys, they're going to win and play close games and have their moments, even if there are some weaknesses. But if they lose Van Ginkle again, if Grinard's not there, if Derisaw's not there. There's a couple of guys on this team that could send it tumbling back to where it was. But this was finally the 2025 Vikings. That's how I come out of this feeling like. offense, defense. We saw for the first time the 2025 Minnesota Vikings. Here they are. Welcome, folks. And I kind of imagine in my brain, what if that had been the entire season from now on? And what's their record if this team, as it existed today, got to play there? I also want to throw out there. Miles Price is putting his name if they could just stop holding in the list of Cordero, Patterson, Marcus Scherner,

Carrels, Percy Harvin, like the great returners, David Palmer, Mo Williams, Cadre Ismail. This guy is special. There is something there with Miles Price. He starts out the game with a huge return that sets them up to score a touchdown. I felt like as far as momentum plays go, those things can be overrated. But starting the game for your offense in scoring position is like, hey, welcome back, J.J. McCarthy. The easiest circumstance you could have asked for here. he is truly, I think, a special and unique talent.

They have to stop committing these penalties. And today was one of those days where you go, hey, is the coach? Is it a problem with coaching? And then they block a field goal, which was an enormous play for Levi Drake Rodriguez. He played a great game today. I don't know what I'm supposed to make of special teams for the Minnesota Vikings in the year 2025. But I thought, what an encapsulation today. Rikert's on point.

Ryan Wright was excellent. Excellent, excellent in this game. Deserved a ton of credit. They block a kick. And then they commit a stupid penalty for Tavier Thomas not running back in bounds. And another stupid penalty that negates a long touchdown. Welcome to the story of the Viking special teams this year. Yeah, I mean, I think with special teams in particular, just kind of honing in on that, like, it's a hard conversation to have because there have been times where I think the special teams unit has buoyed this group through kind of the highs and lows.

There have been just times where a mistake here or there has kind of flipped the game on its head. It almost did. Tavier Thomas kind of in succession holding and getting the Miles Price touchdown knocked off the board and then continuing to get called for unsportsman like conduct. That two-penalties swing nearly kind of changed the game for the Vikings, you know, in favor of the lions. But then you look at what the special teams unit did today to win them the football game. I mean, look, after Detroit scores on their opening possession and they go right down the field and they convert on fourth down and Sam Leporto looks like a man possessed running his way into the end zone, scores a touchdown, like the game feels a lot different if Miles Price just puts his arms to the side and takes a touch back and they get the ball at the 35. Like the fact that he was able to catch the ball and then go 61 yards.

And the thing with him is it's not, oh, it's perfectly blocked up. He's just hitting the hole. He's breaking tackles at point of attack. He's spinning off guys. He's binding the little crevice and then accelerating out of it. I'm going to victory lap Miles Price. I wanted him on the team in training camp just to be stubborn. We were Miles Price, team price or whatever.

Yeah, this podcast was mainly out of stubbornness. But he also showed the ability back in training camp to just catch the ball a lot of the times. You know, he had the punt return in the preseason. There were slivers of what this guy could be, and he's been, I think, everything and then more than what the Vikings would have hoped for. So look, the holding penalties that has to get cleaned up. Matt Daniels talked about it last week. I talked to Tavier Thomas in the locker room, and he told me we can't have it where

Miles Price is returning and looking backwards because he's worried that we got flagged. Like, that can't happen. And then Tavia Thomas is the one who gets called for holding. I get it. Like Matt Daniels said sometimes you just develop a reputation of being a team that holds, and then it's hard to shed. But at the same time, look, you just have to, one, coach it better, but two, as the players, like, Matt Daniels can talk until he's blue in the face

about if you're straining and a guy gets outside, you let go. You have to, at some point as a player, let go. Or you can't play special teams. Like, we can't each week have Miles Price have an explosive return and have it come off the board. But I think that does do a pretty good job, just kind of encapsulating special teams as a whole this season. It's been a strength that time.

It's been a weakness at times. Today, even though I think at times it almost derailed the football game for the Vikings, it helped push them across the finish line with the kick return off the bat. Miles Price just being confident in the punt return game, just catching the ball. Ryan Wright, punting the ball, flipping. The Vikings won field position today. And then the blocked field go at the end. Should have been a touchdown.

I actually don't know how Isaiah Rogers gets caught by the punter there. He's the fastest man. And a good angle by the punter. Bravo. The Detroit punter, very, very good. But just to fact that you're able to block that field go there, take points off the board for the Lions, and then turn that into points the other way for you, that helped push the Vikings across the finish line. They don't win the game without the special team's performance they had today. But overall, Kevin O'Connell talks all about this team has to win in all phases to win football games consistently. They did

today. Offense, defense, special teams all contributed to this 27-24 win. Right, and that's why I don't want to get two like trees instead of forest with the special teams. I mean, Matt Daniels believed in Ryan Wright for these couple years when I think that a lot of us question

that he's been excellent this year and today was one of the biggest days for him of the entire year. I think he had one punt that wasn't that great out of their own end zone, but the rest of them, I mean, he pinned them multiple times back at their own goal line and when they were struggling to run and facing a lot of pressure.

You needed excellent punts and coverage there. The block, Levi-Drake-Rodriguez would not go into any detail about what they saw, but sort of insinuated that they saw something on tape that they were able to execute to be able to block that field goal. And then the returns, the design of the returns, the player that they've picked to do the returns, Miles Price, who they believed in coming out of training camp when he was unproven. And I think there were some, not us, who were saying, like, hey, you know, they should go get a proven returner or something. And they said, no, we're going to go with this guy. So there's been a lot that they've done well. And then, of course, Will Reichard coming back this year is nothing short of fantastic. It's so funny, because my understanding is a guy hit a 68-yard field goal today. Cam Little, I'm not joking. Like, hit a 68-yard field goal. So 50 seems like a chip shot. But like, let's not take for granted that they took a 14-year- yard sack. And Will Reiker just steps up. It says no problem, bangs it through, all good,

and has been also, unless you give him the regular quarterback ball or not a wire NFL, wink, wink, wink in London. But aside from that, this guy is almost flawless. So it is, I think, been overall a net positive for this team. But you're right. The guys individually need to stop committing the penalties. Let's talk about the bigger picture of this team, the NFC North. Each week, take a look at our friends on Fandul and where they have the Vikings odds to win at least eight games. They are now favored at minus 140 on Fandul to win eight games. Now, last week, that number was astronomically the other way for them not to win eight games. So today certainly proved a lot to the markets. I think with what we saw today in the NFC North, which was insane, and congrats to the Chicago Bears for,

being another team that puts 40 on the Cincinnati Bengals. What a wild game that was. The NFL just does not disappoint. But how high should we move the bar after this game? Because one of the things we've talked about, I feel like after so many post games is, well, we can't overreact to this. We can't overreact to that. But I do feel like this game is significant.

This game is worthy of a different reaction level than maybe some other wins would have been. I think it is because it's going to be the theme of this podcast. It's the thesis of this postgame show is that this is what it was supposed to look like. And it did. It looked like what we thought the 2025 Vikings was going to look like. But then there are so many, we just spent 25 minutes talking about the areas throughout the game that need to be improved upon. So I think when you look at this game and you say like how good could they be, that's a total. fair question to have. It wasn't like they got lucky and some wacky thing happened. A pick six or a, you know, like a random fumble. The fumble that Blake Cashman Forrest was not random. That was a good play by him on the, you know, but it wasn't a wonky play that turned the game on its head. It was just them showing what they look like at full strength when they can play complimentary football. So I think it does create a different conversation than just some random win over the Bengals when we said, that was good.

like yeah, Carson Wentz did his job. Isaiah Rogers did something that's never been done, and now they're two and one. Like that win felt different than this win just because of the byproduct of everything that kind of went into it. So could they win nine games? Sure. Could they win 10 games? Sure. Like this thing might click at some point, and then we're saying like, okay, the team that we thought on paper was going to be very good with a growing quarterback who continues to ascend.

each week looks better than the last. That's a conversation we could totally be having in a month. But it means nothing if you go out and get your doors blown off by Baltimore. So that is the week-to-week nature of this league is that right now the Vikings probably are feeling very good about themselves, should be very good performance across the board. Jason McCarthy answered every question on and off the field. I thought he was great.

The defense bounced back. The offense line showed up, the special team. Like all of the things, like they should feel good about. where they're at. But then if you don't go do it again next week, all of a sudden, then it's like the team's under 500. Now there's no margin for error. The questions pop up with each win or loss, but you should feel good about this game moving forward. If you're the Vikings, if you're a fan who follows the Vikings, there's a lot to take away from this game and say, look, weird, weird, weird first couple of months of the season. Now that we've turned the

calendar to November, though, here they come. It's not out of the realm of possibility that they go on a run here. It would take upsetting Baltimore. I would assume they're going to be dogs in that game. But like overall, the fact that we can now look at this team and say, yeah, it's possible that they could beat the Ravens. They're going to be at home. Or yeah, look, they're going to go drive out to Green Bay. But look, the Packers lost of the Panthers. These are conversations we were not having last week in Los Angeles when I was struggling to find three wins on the schedule. It shows one, just the knee-jerk reaction of this league. But two, finally, we saw what this team is supposed to look like.

And here, away we go. I would also like to say two more things real quick. One, I said last week backup quarterbacks break our brains. So I guess after today we don't fire like half of the entire team. But we're not immune to having our brains broken by backup quarterbacks either and injuries. And I think that we probably even had that happen with Carson Wentz trying to play. at like 50% health and just getting blown out, that that loss and the way that it looked was so ugly and so hideous.

But I also think another thing about that was that it also pushed everybody to have to decide within the team, are we going to do this this year? Or is this just completely lost and everyone's going to pack it in? And going with the theme of the entire team, what we expected. What we have always expected is Kevin O'Connell and the way that he manages his locker room and the way he manages players and the culture that he's created to sustain a team this way. I remember Sage Rosenfelds talking about this with Gary Kubiak, that even if they had teams that weren't that good, they'd win seven or eight games because of how good he was

at managing players, keeping everybody fighting the same, pulling on the same rope the right direction. And before the game, they had a meeting where instead of Kevin O'Connell giving his normal Saturday night talk, he had the captain stand up and speak. he had J.J. McCarthy stand up and speak and talk about how there was an opportunity here for this team. And Justin Jefferson and the other captains on this team and said, I'm going to leave it to you guys as opposed to trying to deliver my message. And that's the exact right button to push, I think, because it really is on them to decide which way this is going. And he said that post game of that was his message to the team is there's a lot of things that are happening right now where you could let this season slip away.

And we have seen that in the past from certain teams that we've covered where, hey, there's an opportunity to save this thing and get it back on the tracks or let it slide. And the teams have let it slide. So the fact that they were able to do that culture-wise as a locker room also deserves, I think, a lot of praise, but also the reason that you have this coach here, these leaders here, a veteran team here that they built. So are they a team that all of a sudden shoots to the top of the Fanduil Super Bowl rankings? absolutely not. They've got a long way to go in order to prove that. But this one right here can be one of those games that through the years, the opportunity is there. I'm not guaranteeing. I'm saying the opportunities there that we go back to and go, when they won that one, it told everybody, yeah, you're supposed to be the type of team that comes into Detroit and win. That's

what this was built for. So we can hold off on hot seats and draft picks for now and talk about Vikings Ravens at home next week. Dane Mizatani Pioneer Press will be there, of course, at U.S. Bank Stadium with me, as always, so we will catch you then, but it will be a fun week for the first time in a while. It'll be a very fun week to talk about, break down this game, take everything we can out of it, and then preview the next contest, which now feels very, very, very relevant in the NFC North. So thanks, everybody. Oh, can we just say one thing real quick?

I would like you to explain to the audience at home or in their vehicles depending. Please don't watch my YouTube when you're driving. Your comparison for Jordan Love, because today the Packers putting on the performance they did versus the Carolina Panthers, I think said a lot about Jordan Love and what the Packers truly are, but you've got, I think, a better comparison. Yeah, you put me on the spot here. There's probably a better comparison out there. No, I love this.

I love this. if it's esoteric or like very, very specific and you have to also watch the NBA. I just like it and we're 50 minutes in. So if everyone watched the entire way, then just follow along. He's J.R. Smith to me. And that's going to sound crazy because J.R. Smith was a role player on a couple of teams that won championships and, you know, the famous birds of LeBron, you're going to give us J.R. He was a guy not a lot of teams wanted over the course of his NBA career because he was hot and

then he was cold. He was hot and he was cold. Jordan Love is a better quarterback than J.J. or than J.R. Smith was shooting guard in the NFL. But they are similar in the sense that when Jordan Love is on, he can look like the best quarterback in the league. We saw it last week. Jordan Love was the MVP of the league last week because of the performance he put forth. And then when Jordan Love is off, he can look like just a guy.

He can look like Carson Wentz did with when his shoulder was. dangling off of his body. He's just a guy sometimes. And the fact that he is now a six-figure or $100 million quarterback that sometimes plays good, sometimes plays bad. To me, he's J.R. Smith. And if you have J.R. Smith as your quarterback or somebody who embodies the J.R. Smith consistency of hot and cold and hot and cold, I don't think you can be that good. Now, look, Jordan Love might go on a hot streak. If they make the playoffs, he might get hot for four weeks. they win the Super Bowl. But just to live in that reality of sometimes he's going to be a good quarterback, sometimes he's going to be a bad quarterback, tough reality to live in. It speaks to the

difficulty of the position, but yes, to me, Jordan Love is J.R. Smith, and I'm sure Packers fans will love to hear that. I also don't want to see the Packers media getting mocked by Matt LaFleur anymore for questioning them having a top receiver to push the ball to over and over again because that I think is also at the center of their inconsistency. And let me make one, when we we're making ridiculous comparisons. Every once in a while, you'll see an athlete get compared to Superman. Now, there's something they forget when they make that comparison. As a superhero person, as a child, let me tell you, Superman had this thing called

kryptonite. That's Jared Goff. To me, Jared Goff, when all things are right for Superman, he's got lasers shooting out, he's flying, speed of light, everything's great. Lois Lane, everything, right? But when one person gets one little green stick and puts it up nearer, him. He melts. And I think that is Jared Goff with interior pressure. And I think this team is one to keep an eye on going forward as impressed as I have been by the Lions. And as much as it is a week

to week league, and I'm not declaring them dust. That, what we saw today, that travels from week to week. Everyone else just saw that as well. And you can expect that they're going to face a ton of it going forward. So everybody in the division feels good and flawed. And where we go from here, we will see. So on the next episode of Purple Insider, we'll see you then. Thanks, everybody, and football. Football.