Purple Insider - a Minnesota Vikings and NFL podcast - POSTGAME REACTION: JJ McCarthy builds confidence in blowout over Commanders

Episode Date: December 7, 2025

Matthew Coller talks with Dane Mizutani of the Pioneer Press about JJ McCarthy's good game against Washington and what it means for his immediate future. Did the Vikings find something on Sunday? Or was it a mirage? The Purple Insider podcast is brought to you by FanDuel. Also, check out our sponsor HIMS at https://hims.com/purpleinsider Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See https://pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Hey, everybody, welcome into another post-game show here on Purple Insider, presented by Fandul, Matthew Collar, Dane Mizatani, the Pioneer Press, inside U.S. Bank Stadium following the Vikings' complete blowout of the Washington commanders who flew here for that. The commanders put together a pretty sorry performance against this team, But the story of the day, J.J. McCarthy, getting some confidence back, playing more simple, playing more fast, delivering a lot of very good throws, three touchdown passes, all to tight ends today for the Vikings. And on the defensive side, Jaden Daniels' return went about as badly as he could have ever asked it to go, ended up not being able to finish the game due to injury and also just playing really, really poorly. And so that's really the main question where we start off, Dane, is.

this type of showing from J.J. McCarthy, which was really what we expected the Minnesota Vikings to look like this year. We thought, okay, they should be able to run the football behind a stout offensive line. They did that like crazy today. They should be able to get J.J. McCarthy to just deliver in a handful of moments to open wide receivers. It shouldn't be that complicated. They can draw it up. They've got the players for it. And then the defense should do the rest. And Will Riker can't forget he made another field goal today. that everybody else should be able to support McCarthy, and he should end up with stat lines like he did today, where he ends up with 151 passing yards and only having to throw 23 passes in a complete blowout win. Now, I don't think it would be right to declare that the last six games did not count, didn't see them. I don't know what you're talking about.

Green Bay, never heard of it. But I also think we can't brush this game aside and say, okay, it doesn't matter. It was just the commanders. I mean, this is a bad football team for sure, but they did take the Denver Broncos to overtime just last week. They had played some reasonably competitive games in the past. So how much do you, Dane, take for J.J. McCarthy away from this contest?

Yeah, I mean, I think it was huge, and nothing else for J.J. McCarthy's confidence. And maybe for everybody in that locker room's confidence in J.J. McCarthy. Talking to J.J. McCarthy after the game, He said a lot of words, like the focus or, I guess, the thesis of his press conference was, like, I'm happy with my performance, but I need to improve. Paraphrasing, that's not his exact words, but he was focused on what do I got to do next. But he did layer in something at the end that definitely piqued my interest and perked my ears up. He said, like, this should have happened sooner. And I think he feels kind of deep down inside of him, like, man, I am capable of this.

and it has not happened in the way that probably he thought it would happen this year. So I think a game like this is big for him. I don't think we can come in here on every post game after he plays terribly and question the viability of his long-term success in the NFL. If we're not going to come in here after he plays very well and give credence to kind of what this could mean in his progression moving forward. Is everything fixed? No.

Where there are still some issues today? Yes. But the accuracy was improved. He played with conviction. He played with the decisiveness that I don't think was at anywhere over the past month really on display. I mean, you just saw like the swagger kind of come back to him a little bit. So yeah, I think this game is very, very big for JJ McCarthy in a vacuum right now walking out of U.S. Bank Stadium. How big will it be for J.J. McCarthy in the trajectory that has been this season? We won't know that until next week. until we fly to Dallas until J.J. McCarthy goes up against that Cowboys defense and, you know, if he is able to build on top of this performance, then I would say this performance was obviously a huge inflection point in his career. If it is another roller coaster downward turn next weekend, then I think you can almost just kind of look at this as, you know, a continuation of the ups and downs we've seen. But he desperately needed a performance like this today. And so, you know, It brings some intrigue back into this season.

What is he going to look like over the next month? Because I think at a point there for the past month, this thing has gone so far off the rails. It's kind of back on the tracks a little bit. Washington defense, nothing to write home about. But Jason McCarthy was good today, and I think that's something that he should feel good about, something the Vikings can probably feel good about moving forward.

I think saying nothing to write home about would be the most Midwest polite thing that I've ever heard. It was an abomination. It was complete garbage, as it has been for all season. And that's what is so difficult to evaluate with J.J. McCarthy because last time he played, it was at Lambeau Field against a team that has Micah Parsons. And in the first half, or maybe just into the second half, you lose two of your offensive linemen. And the other team is just teeing off on you, which is not a good circumstance for a lot of veteran quarterbacks who might be able to kind of push through that. But a young quarterback ends up

getting slammed into the turf a bunch of times. But then we come out for a game like today, and this looked like J.J. McCarthy's first preseason game of the year because the commanders who are allowing almost nine yards a pass coming into the game for a season, which is almost impossible to do. Like basically any quarterback who's played against them this year, on average, has turned into an MVP. Like, that's what they've done.

And we saw exactly why they had not even remote pressure on the quarter, back, there was a couple of sacks, which were pretty much J.J. McCarthy hanging on to the ball too long, maybe not seeing something downfield, which Kevin O'Connell sort of subtly referenced, and he, you know, made a couple of plays with his legs, tried to escape and things like that. But aside from that, I mean, there was almost no pressure whatsoever. I'm curious to look tomorrow at the PFF pressure rate, because it's got to be under 20% of his dropbacks. T.J. Hawkinson mentioned in the locker room that they were playing way off coverage on a lot of the third downs, and most of them were someone just running a deep

out route, which J.J. McCarthy could throw to a wide open Addison, a wide open nailer. And this is not typical of what you would see in the NFL, especially because if you're playing against the Green Bay or Seattle last week, their corners can play ultra aggressive on the wide receivers because they know that their pass rush is going to get home. This team has zero pass rush whatsoever, so they have to play way off in a lot of. allow a lot of completions underneath. So not being able to cover, not being able to pressure. Most of the wide receivers were, I mean, there wasn't somebody 10 yards around them,

which of course, you know, he can pitch and catch. And he deserves credit for throwing accurate balls under those circumstances. And in previous weeks, we had seen some of those fly into the stands. Maybe there was one or two today that were not very accurate. But the two extremes of what we saw were mostly dictated by the two extremes of the teams that we saw. The Packers are a Super Bowl contender. The commanders are now 3 and 10 with eight straight losses this season. So I think that, well, it is very important and could ultimately be looked at as a turning point for J.J. McCarthy. To me, that's much more of an

emotional state. It's more of a mental state for J.J. McCarthy. A reminder, oh, yeah, I'm a first round pick with a lot of talent who can lead a team to wins, which it had felt like since the Lions game that that confidence had really severely waned. But I think in terms of if you're trying to evaluate the bigger picture, it's another blip on what happens in a season, which is you play a myriad of different types of teams. And what we have now is against some good teams, there are some good performances, Chicago and Detroit.

There's also some very poor performances against teams that maybe don't have the best defenses. And then I thought today, I would give it an A. I thought it was a very, very strong performance. against the team that has clearly decided to pack it in and start thinking about next year. Yeah, and I think something the Vikings talked about today, and that was so imperative in J.G. McCarthy having success was stacking positive plays on top of each other. And that's why I think when we widen out, that is kind of going to be the prism with which we can kind of judge the final month

is stacking positive performances on top of each other. It happened today where they were able to start fast, put up a touchdown right away. They had a 19 play, 98-yard drive, covered 12 minutes. It's why the game was like two and a half hours because of that drive. But you saw the momentum kind of start to build within this game for J.J. McCarthy by stacking positive plays. And so I think that's why he has to now stack positive performances on top of each other. This defense stinks that he played against, but he was able to take advantage of that and kind of move forward in a way that now he can feel a little bit of confidence heading into next week. But I think it has to be, okay, good this week, what are you going to do next week?

Are you going to be able to build off of that? If it is up and down, then I think we were probably going to end up closer to kind of where we were last week by the end of the season than how we feel in this present moment after the game. So I think overall, you mentioned his emotional component to this, just getting that feeling like, yeah, I'm good. I can do this. I think he needed that because we've talked to this guy now from the time he was drafted in 2024, talking about Wayne Gretzky, you know, getting texts from Wayne Gretzky on his Zoom press conference and coming in and, you know, look in the part of a franchise guy and having that confidence about him. And then the guy we talked to over the past month at times looked very, very different from the guy we knew and that came in with that swagger. So I think this just has to be something that he feels good about now, but you can't ride too high, you can't ride too low. You kind of have to just be in that kind of even keel demeanor for the, if you want to succeed in the NFL.

So can he do that? We'll see. But yeah, today was a good performance for him regardless of the defense that was. across. If you guys have been wearing hats or trying different haircuts in order to cover up for your hair loss, trust me, I totally feel you. And maybe you've tried different hair loss solutions and nothing works. Well, I've got something for you then. It's called Hymns. Hymns offers convenient access to a range of prescription hair loss treatments with ingredients that work. And you can do it in a way that works best for you. Prefer an oral medication or a spray. Do it your way.

HIMS brings expert care straight to you with 100% online access to personalize treatment plans that put your goals first. No hidden fees, just personalized care on your schedule. For simple online access to personalize and affordable care for hair loss, ED, weight loss, and more, visit Hymns.com slash Purple Insider. That is Hymns.com slash Purple Insider for your free online. Visit Hymns.com slash Purple Insider. Results may vary based on studies of topical and oral monoxidil and finesteride. Featured products include compound drug products which the FDA does not approve or verify for

safety effectiveness or quality. Prescription required. See website for full details, restrictions and important safety information. Well, and the tough part also is that Dallas is giving up the second most yards per game. The New York Giants have quit on their entire coaching staff. They fired more people this week. And it, It feels like, though, if you can build confidence over three games and also not just build confidence, but find stuff that works for you. It felt like, in O'Connell reference the number of plays, it felt like throughout the season, because there was a stop and a start and then a stop again before this game, that it was really hard as well as struggling to actually stay on the field to find out what J.J. McCarthy is actually good at. Like, what does he see well in a defense? What is he comfortable calling and throwing with so few reps, so few pass attempts?

Really, really hard to figure that out, I think for Kevin O'Connell, but also for J.J. McCarthy, when he's dropping back and looking at a defense, what is he seeing? What is he comfortable with throwing? There are a couple instances where maybe there's a shot to be taken, and he does check it down. He does throw it underneath to Ben Sims to start the game, which this is why, you know, gambling can be kind of tricky for folks. If you had Jefferson getting the first catch, you missed by a mile. And it was Ben Sims.

But that's a good play for him. That's a completion to start getting things going. And then it felt like he built on that decision. That was a good decision. I didn't feel like there were very many times throughout the game where I went, oh, JJ, where are you throwing the football? It felt like he was decisive and confident in what he was seeing. But, you know, that doesn't apply to every defense you're going to face.

especially the ones at the end of the year if, you know, Detroit and Green Bay are playing for something. So it's really just a data point for them, I think, to work with and build off of, like, it can't be a nothing. It can't be a zero. Because I saw a lot of that, people talking about that, like, oh, this means nothing. It's Washington.

And while I'm inclined to call them a AAA baseball team, as I did throughout the week and call this a September call-up game where you get some pitcher from AAA that, you know, you hit three home runs off of and you go, okay, well, you know, it's not exactly the 100-mile-an-hour flamethrower. It's still, you still hit the home run. Like, you still had to hit a home run against a pro. This is still a defense filled with pros that you hit home runs against.

Now, the question that this sort of dovetails into is, and I'm not going there myself, but I think it has to be asked, as a lot of the messaging to McCarthy this week was, stop worrying about fundamentals. We're not coaching that anymore this season, and we're going to simplify. said we went back to a lot of stuff that we worked on in OTAs and mini-camp sounds to me like base plays, as opposed to all of the different tentacles that come off of plays in Kevin O'Connell's system. He likes to call it where the bones are buried. Well, it was very clear that McCarthy didn't have a shovel to find those bones earlier this year, but running the base

plays worked for him the best. So does this mean that we look back and go, maybe, maybe you should have run those before, or are we saying you really need to know all of those things on a week-to-week basis to work in the NFL if you're playing Micah Parsons as opposed to whatever's left of Bobby Wagner? Sorry, Bobby, that's not fair. You're a good player, but it's not the same. How do we view those comments, that clear message about simplifying to J.J. McCarthy with what happened here today? Yeah, I mean, I feel like it's pretty obvious based on what we saw, based on kind of what we've seen that he and I guess it's kind of hard because the defense that that he went up against today stinks.

So if he implemented a more advanced game plan, maybe he could have succeeded with that too. It was more of a basic game plan. He succeeded with that because that was what was on the table. But I think what we have kind of learned now just talking to J.J. McCarthy, I mean, he mentioned how it kind of freed up his mind this week to not be thinking about all of the intricacies of his mechanics and his footwork. And while the idea was, let's get him to just focus on decision-making and playing the game, the way he kind of learned to play growing up, when you dive into the kind of game plan aspect of it, I think it probably is a little too full. There is probably part of you that wonders, should we have just been more basic from the start and tried to win games by running the ball 34 times and having him not feel like he has to push the ball down field every time he drops back to pass?

there is probably some credence to that. However, I would caution against saying this is how they should have won games. Like, this is the way they needed to do it because it's not necessarily the defense you were going to play every single week, week in and week out. And by the way, like, I don't know if the way to win games is Justin Jefferson catching two balls for 11 yards. So I think this offense has proven over the course of now since 2022 to now we're damn near in 2026. that like when it has a high-level competent quarterback, it can drive success with their passing offense and the way they kind of attacked opposing defenses.

So maybe there will be some self-reflection at the end of the year of did we try to do too much with someone who was not ready to do that much? But I don't think you can sit here and say, we should have been a basic level football team because they were never going to be that. That is just asking them to be something. They're not. and I don't know if that would have been conducive to them all of a sudden now being in a

playoff fight in the middle of December. I would venture to guess if you were really basic with this offense over the course of the season, you would be very, very predictable and other teams would take advantage of that. So it's two prong. Like I do think there are a lot of people who are now going to watch this game and say, see, Kevin, that's how you should have called it all along. And while there is probably shreds of truth to that, I think, that's oversimplifying kind of what we saw today and kind of projecting into what you think

it would have looked like. I can guarantee if they had the game plan they had today against the Green Bay Packers, it would not have worked as well as it did today. So there's elements of both, but I think when you're a quarterback in the NFL by week 14 where we're at, like you should probably be able to run the entire sample size of your playbook or a large portion of it. Now, It looked good today. I think maybe we can see it like dial up next week. We'll see how much more they put on his plate. Simplification was the word of the week.

And we saw some success. But I don't know if that's the way to have long-term success here with him playing quarterback. Well, one of the things that came to mind today was the time that Kirk Cousins through 10 passes against the Atlanta Falcons in 2019 and one. I think if JJ had thrown 10 passes, they would have won this game easily. that circumstances will dictate often the results and the performance, right? We talk about this all the time that quarterback can throw for 400 yards while they're losing all day long and just trying desperately to come back. But that doesn't mean it was a great game exactly. And for this one, you just couldn't have more favorable circumstances.

Your defense gets a stop at the goal line, and then you are on the field the whole time as you're running and running and running success. successfully. And look, if you're doing as well on the ground as they did today with Jordan Mason and Aaron Jones and an offensive line that, oh my goodness, it was the full offensive line. And that's what it was supposed to look like all season long. I can't blame Kevin O'Connell for kind of going off about that on Friday about how frustrating it's been to have all the ins and outs of different players subbing in, even sometimes in the middle of games. And Donovan Jackson and Christian Darrasaw and Ryan Kelly, these guys are really good at football. They were getting an initial push. that was destroying the Washington commanders. And then Aaron Jones is a warrior. There was a play where Aaron Jones completely saved J.J. McCarthy from getting destroyed. But then he came back. I think the next play and broke like three tackles and got a first down. So you see the heart of that guy.

But they were running so successfully that every play action had a chance to, you know, get them in rhythm with completions and with open wide receivers. That's how the 2019 Vikings played a lot. remember that season, what happened? And I know this is going back a little bit. So I'll give you the answer to the question. It's every time they played somebody hard, they lost. And every time they played someone like this, they crushed them because those are the circumstances that you can play. And it doesn't mean that you can suddenly go out and play with the best of the best. It means that when you play a bad team, you are going to be able to implement this very simple,

very straightforward, very basic type of game plan. However, let me, for this thought. I think that J.J. McCarthy inside of a meeting room and in a practice is very impressive. This is just my guess. He is the 10th overall pick in the draft without huge statistics in college. Kevin O'Connell went met with him, was sold on him in what front of a whiteboard and on a practice field. And repeatedly, we have heard Jefferson, Hawkinson, KOC, everybody, West Phillips talk about how good he is in practice. I think J.J. McCarthy, in some ways, may have made them believe through his camp performances, through his practice performances, through his ability to process football off of the field, that he was ready to apply all of it onto the field. Now, you could say, well, this is O'Connell's fault for not identifying some of that, and you might be right.

I also think that they've done this three weeks in a row with this type of game plan. we just started talking about it more in this game because they started talking about it more. But I think that that may have caused some of it earlier on that when you can go out there and show it back to you, it shows proof of concept, but applying that when you're playing the Packers at Lambeau Field, I know they didn't really do that in that game. So maybe against the Ravens a couple weeks ago, a team that loves deception, has Kyle Hamilton on it, they send lots of different rushers, they have lots of different defensive of ideas and schemes, it's a little bit different.

Dennis Allen is very, very tricky, especially on third downs. There was no tricks here today. This was nothing. This was, I don't even know if they ran a blitz today. Maybe on the goal line, they ran one that he had to kind of escape out of. The point is that I think McCarthy's personality and how he's able to spit back the information that he is given, how he's able to prepare, how he's able to practice, maybe cause them to push a little too far early on thinking, all right, he's got it.

But getting it on the practice field in real time, connecting those things is going to take time. Yeah, you probably are on to something. And J.J. McCarthy, he wasn't asked that specifically after the game, but he did mention just the importance of reps and live bullets and feeling what it feels like to play in an NFL game, something that he hadn't done at all last year. He didn't even feel reps in practice. And something that after a good first game or obviously a comeback win in his NFL debut and then a terrible second game, he was out for six weeks. So I think he understands like the idea of applying what I learned in practice, what I put on tape in practice, and what I'm able to do in a game is a wholly different thing.

And so like I said, he didn't exactly get asked that question, but he did kind of allude to what you are saying is that like live games. reps are irreplaceable for this kid and I think there probably was some of that early this season of yeah load him up like this kid is sharp like he's going to be able to to take in all of it he had a year of experience learning the offense with sam darnald running it and man those br goggles really helped him see what he's going to actually see on sundays but what is the mike Tyson reference like everybody has a plan to you get punched in the face like the first time J.J. McCarthy got walloped in the NFL. Like, everything speeds up. I know the level of prospect is wholly different, but we saw that with Max Brosmer last week, he was a guy who was lauded

for his ability to process and just get to the right place in the right amount of time, gets hit one time, and everything speeds up. All of a sudden, he's sailing guys high. It happens in the NFL. And I think, like, there is probably, again, like at the end of this next month, month when we walk out of U.S. Bank Stadium after the Packers game, there's going to be self-reflection from everybody, probably a lot of self-reflection from J.J. McCarthy, where he feels like he could have done better this year. But yeah, I think there probably will be some of that from Kevin O'Connell at the end of the year, thinking to himself, like, man, like where there are times to pare down earlier when it was pretty clear that it was looking a little clunky,

a little up and down over the course of kind of the season. The only one of the time, the only part that I kind of give him a pass on that is that he hasn't been able to see a steady progression of J.J. McCarthy because it has been a lot of starts and stops, like you mentioned earlier. A game against the Falcons goes poorly. Well, you know what, if J.J. McCarthy was just able to go play against the Bengals, we wouldn't have been talking a lot about that game against the Falcons, but he wasn't able to stay on the field. He probably has this game. Exactly. So there are just more data points that were kind of needed throughout this process, I think, to understand what this kid could take on.

But I think we're starting to kind of see it. And I guess you can use today as much or as little as you want as a fan at home to kind of how to feel about J.J. McCarthy. But a feeling I had today was, man, like this is the team that they thought they were going to have. Like a team that could, like you were set out right off the top, run the ball, have playmakers make plays on offense to take some pressure off of the kid, force turnovers on defense be clean on special teams and if you did all of those things 17 times you were going to win more games than you lost it is not the team that we've seen kind of play out week in and week out injuries have played a role game plans have played a role individual performances have played a role mistakes have played a role but you look at this

game and it's 31 to zero but you almost walk away like damn like that could have been kind of the formula over the course of the entire season, all obviously with the caveat of the Washington commanders are barely an NFL football team right now. Two more things to say for me on J.J. McCarthy, then we'll talk about the rest of the day. Number one is I still come out of this with concerns about the way he plays and his health. There were a few times that he took off where you went. And he said that part of his diving forward is on purpose. and I think that that's something that NFL quarterbacks are doing a little bit more after Trevor Lawrence

in that play where he was sliding and guys could still kind of hit you late slide and you get the yards. If you dive forward, you can kind of control where you're headed a little bit better as opposed to being totally helpless. At the same time, you got to do it a little bit earlier, I think if you're him. And there were a few times in the pocket where he ducked his head and his eyes came down. And that's always a little bit concerning to me. He still took four sacks in this game where they weren't getting any pressure at all. And I don't believe any of those four sacks were fast sacks. And that's been a massive problem for him.

If there was a criticism, I know I gave him an A. Let me change it to an A minus because I think that that was it. If there's one criticism of this game, it's that taking four sacks is not something you should be doing against the defensive line like that. The ball should just be coming out somewhere. And it still remains a concern. How many hits? He took quite a few hits in a game where he did. drop back to pass 27 times through 23 passes, took four sacks, and the one where he throws to

Jefferson in the end zone, and he isn't able to pull it in, but he gets crushed on that one. Like, this is late in the game, and you're getting drilled in the pocket. So that still remains a concern. And the one other thing is the big picture, which is for me, it is a data point. It is something that counts, and it matters. It is not a preseason game. The other team presumably was trying to win. But I think that these last four games are going to tell us something.

I don't know if they're going to tell us everything about J.J. McCarthy. And we're going to have to look at the entirety of it because with his age and his lack of experience, the reality is we just really don't know where this is going. There's always been enough flashes to say maybe. And there's always been enough mistakes and downside to be like, I don't know, man. So I don't think that we could be done talking about. about other quarterbacks that they are going to look at or potentially bring in, although I think I might cross Marcus Mariotta off of that list after seeing him today.

But I don't think we could be done with that conversation. Maybe it just deadens it a little bit for this week, but I don't think so. I don't think that this just eliminates that discussion about what they're going to do next year. And I don't think it eliminates the discussion about who's going to be here, who's not going to be here, how ownership is going to view this, but we get a little more information about all these things each week. Yeah, and that's why the next month matters, right? Like, you will probably have a better idea four weeks from now than you do right now. If he does this four more times, like you feel better, but I don't know if you feel so good about it, even if he does this

four more times that you say, hands down, he's our guy, we're just going to sign a super old veteran guy to hold a clipboard and help him along. I think we talked about this earlier this week on the pod, is that what could he do over the final five weeks, now final four, because we have seen him play a game and win 3010? What could he do for the remainder of the season to kind of change the way that he is viewed

for the front office, for the coaching staff? And I think we both agreed that is it going to ever reach a point where they can fully commit with full, confidence and ignore the first six games and say, gosh, darn it, you're the guy for us no matter what? No, I think we both agree that regardless of what happened over the final month of the season, there was going to be some level of competition. Now, I think where we discerned the difference

of what this final month could look like for the future of Jay J.J. McCarthy is what kind of guy do you bring in here? If he does this four more times, I don't think they go out and think they need to go find their future quarterback and have him kind of just sit there and compete, but compete, you know, what they did with Anthony Richardson and Indianapolis. He competed for the job, but I don't think they thought he was going to be their starting quarterback. If J.J. McCarthy downturns and all of a sudden this week feels like an aberration in the final four weeks are a lot of what we had seen the previous six games, I think it could

go down that route. But if he does what he did today and he continues to stack positive performances on top of of each other, I think he's still probably looking at a competition of some sort next training camp. It's just a matter of what is that guy going to look like. So I don't think this game should or does change everything about JJ McCarthy's progression to this point, but I think it has an opportunity to kind of be a moment where we look back on and say, like, that's when it started to turn. But we probably won't feel that until way into next season, because I don't think you're going to learn anything over the course

of the rest of this season that would give you full confidence and that he is unquestionably the guy. We're being really logical right now, but if he wins four straight games and plays really well in those games, your tune will change, and I think everybody else's will too. And that would be a little bit of, I don't know if it's, so is it a good or a bad thing? Like, he probably needed to play some teams that were not leading the NFC or having the best defensive player not named Miles Garrett in the NFL play against

him like he did against the Green Bay Packers. But when you look at forward here, you can imagine a world where, okay, the Dallas Cowboys, you play a shootout against them or something, you get a lot of yardage. You go to the New York Giants. They want to be home for Christmas.

Christmas time, the Detroit Lions are injured quite a bit. The secondary, we saw that when they played against the Dallas Cowboys. Brian Branch is now out for the year, one of their key players. And then you play the Packers, who quite possibly could be settled and nestled into a playoff spot and not play Micah Parsons or anybody else in that game. So you could have a stretch of four games.

This actually happened with Bo Nix last year. In the second half of the season, you go back and he had a great game against, like, Cincinnati, you had a historically bad defense for that franchise. and not that it didn't carry over to some extent, but there's still a lot of questions about Bo Nix, but in the second half, he looked like a franchise quarterback. He threw four touchdowns in the final game of the season

against Kansas City who wasn't playing their starters, so there can be, and that's what I'll continue to call it, a little bit of fools gold with these last four games. At the same time, you could look at it the other way, which is you needed to play some teams that were not optimal, you know, the best teams in the league elite, teams to get some confidence going and start to look more like an NFL quarterback, and he got that opportunity today, and we'll see where it goes from here. But here's my thing, if you can't

put together three out of four really good games, have this look pretty nice by the end, then you're definitely talking about exploring all options. One of those options, by the way, is off the table for next year. Daniel Jones tore his Achilles today, and that was something that had been tossed out there. Like, could the Vikings potentially try to sign him back, you know, if they were struggling with where they were at with J.J. McCarthy. But I think this is just the wild ride that young quarterbacks put you on, that the 2025 Minnesota Vikings were not prepared to go on this year. Had they been the Titans, had they been the Browns, maybe that would be a little bit different. Let's talk about the

defense today. What a masterful performance by Brian Flores. I mean, just abused Jay Daniels. The first drive was not good for the defense. They get a key stop. Commanders, again, I just don't know. Are we going to get another article that Cliff Kingsbury is going to be a head coach again? Because, I don't know. I mean, his agent must be fantastic with the number of times, even when this team is losing that he's talked about as a head coaching candidate, I wouldn't do that after his play calling today. So they fail early. And for whatever reason, just didn't run the ball into the end zone. Baffling. A lot of baffling stuff from the Washington commanders today. But then with a clearly wounded Jaden Daniels, who, in my opinion, should not

have been playing. If you can't fall down on your elbow without having to leave the game, you are not able to play in the NFL. What a gaff from them, not just telling him, hey, brother, wait one more week. What are we doing here? This is the Vikings defense at U.S. Bank Stadium. One of the most complicated, one of the most violent defenses there is that rushes the passer has the third best pressure rate in the NFL, and you're throwing out your franchise quarterback with an injury that he can't even bump on the turf without having to go out into the blue tent? Crazy, crazy stuff. You can take Dan Snyder out of the commanders, but you cannot take the commanders out of the

commanders, apparently. So anyway, his aggression, blitzing, rushing, and then we knew it was going to happen eventually. Van Ginkle goes full Van Ginkle. this defense has now put together five, six weeks of just marvelous play, kind of a reminder of what they wasted throughout this year, but a great overall showing. And for Harrison Smith to have the game he did today, he was all over in the blitzing game, he gets an interception off of Marcus Marriota, and Anthony Barr was in the building blowing the gala horn with a Harrison Smith jersey on. I mean, for Harrison Smith to have that game here, it was just great. Because I think we know where this is very likely headed for Harrison Smith. And you could tell after the game, like he didn't want to say that exactly.

But he said, you know, every time you get a chance to play football, it's fun. And there was a little bit more to his celebration that I know was not any kind of, you know, shot at the commanders. Who cares about the commanders? But it was, I think there was a little bit more to his hype, knowing that there's only so many more chances he gets to get interceptions in the NFL. Yeah. quickly about Van Ginkle. I don't know why anybody throws screens to his side. It's stupid.

It's stupid to even try it at this point. The dude is so incredibly good at having a feel for when that ball is coming out of the quarterback's hands, how to get his hands on the ball? How many defenders in the league do you think if they were put in that position would just have the ball hit them and it would follow the turf and it's just okay, they'll kick a field goal? He somehow always gives himself an opportunity either to catch it clean, or bat it in the air so he can catch it himself on the deflection. The guy is one of the best defensive players in the league,

and I think it maybe goes on notice when the Vikings are five and eight. But I think when he makes splash plays like that, it allows everybody in the world to kind of talk about how good this guy is. Now, about Harrison Smith, I felt good for him too. And I think there was a large part of him that came back this season because he thought the Vikings could win a Super Bowl. I think everybody at the start of the league year back in March thought the Vikings were on an upward trajectory and they could win a Super Bowl. I think that's a big reason why Harrison Smith came back.

So to see it kind of devolved the way it has this season for the Vikings, I don't think their playoff hopes are technically totally gone, but they're effectively gone. And to see him just kind of enjoy the game, how could you not feel good about a guy like that? he's been doing this so long. I'm 34 years old. Harrison Smith got drafted when I was a sophomore in college. Like he's been doing this so long and playing a style of football that is not necessarily conducive to doing it for as long as he has. So I think you are starting to see maybe him just kind of start to lean into these

moments. He was the last player out of the tunnel today. Oftentimes he'll just run out. Like this time he kind of just, you know, gave a little wave and then ran out. Like I think it's little moments like that. not going to ever see Harrison Smith balling his eyes out on the field or cutting a vein with you and talking about how much this means to him in the law. He's a pretty quiet, reserve guy always kind of has been throughout his career. But yeah, I think the celebration

after his interception definitely stood out to me. Even when Javon Hargrave forced to fumble, the first guy, like giving him a pat on the butt and like celebrating with him is Harrison Smith. Like I still think he really enjoys the game, but I don't think there have been necessarily been a lot of enjoyable games this year. So to have to see him kind of have a performance like this on a day where the defense just completely dominates on the other end, they're not going to make the playoffs. They're not going to win the Super Bowl. But there are moments, you get 17 of these things in the NFL.

And if you're a fan of this team, like that's one to feel good about today. Like, yes, J.J. McCarthy played well. Yes, the offense looked improved. Yes, the play calling. And all of the things that you've probably criticized from your couch at home look better on that side of the football, but like don't take for granted, like Harrison Smith in that moment he had and the performance the defense had today as a whole. I kind of, it was one of those last

flashes of Harrison Smith making what looked like a pretty brilliant play and then, you know, catching the ball. And I don't know what he was looking to do. He said he was looking to maybe pitch it to Isaiah Rogers, which I guess makes sense. He's the fastest guy on the team. But him running around with the ball and his one hand was like, what are we doing here? Because it would have really ruined it if he fumbled the ball while he was returning that there are some players that have just been an honor to be around and harrison smith is one of those players and i know this is just a suggestion for him if you're going to tie it up tell them like tell the tell the team like there's a home game it's against the packers the last game of the season i know he'll whatever he does he'll

have a presentation i do not expect him to do that at all uh that's just my like like break harrison Smith personality, break character one time, and tell the team that this is if it's going to be your last day so people can celebrate. And that would be a reason to be here for week 18, as you might be seeing the last game of one of the great Vikings in history, a guy who will be extremely easy to put in the ring of honor and we'll have the Hall of Fame conversation another day. Of course, I've been banging that drum for a couple years. The advanced data gives us a lot on that. But that's, you know, kind of for another day. But a great moment for him thought the other interesting trend today, which I imagine we're going to see a lot of

is other players. Like they're everyone. If you had a jersey today, it was like little kids soccer where they were just coming in and out and out. And this wasn't just at the end. It was all game long. And Jay Ward was out there a lot as an outside corner. And again, I feel terrible for Zachertz. Zachert's a great player for a really, really long time, probably saw his last play today. the way that J. Ward hit him. I don't think it was intentional, but it was a low hit on the knee. You can't hit tight ends high. This happened to T.J. Hawkinson. But Jay Ward got a lot of run today, which is kind of been budding a little bit or growing a little bit from his role. But he was out there instead of Isaiah Rogers? So we're like, wait, was Isaiah Rogers benched for Jay Ward? That would be weird. It may be based on some mistackles last week. And then Isaiah Rogers came on. And then we saw, every one. And I thought that was an interesting strategy. It did cause a little bit of confusion. They had a 12 men on the field play where it kind of ruined a sack and a strip. But I like this a lot, actually. If Brian Flores is either just thinking, let's be as fresh as we can be for these

plays, or if he's thinking about a little bit of next year, we know that his status, his contract status is up in the air, but getting some guys on the field that he wants to see. We saw a lot of Ty Ingram Dawkins today. I want to see a lot of more of Ty and Grum Dawkins. Like, Brian Flores was doing it as if I was doing it because a lot of, you know, we talk about this when you're out of the playoffs. Like just get guys experience, get guys in the game. And I thought it actually played to their favor because they were fresh all day. Yeah, I think that's probably something we're going to see more of down the stretch here. There is technically something to play for if you shoot for the moon and you get everything to break your way, but the playoff chances are very low.

But I think there is something to play for in that everybody who gets to kind of put the helmet on and get into the game can prove themselves for this year and moving forward into next year. It is the classic conversation that happens late in training camp, which like I'm playing for myself and for 31 other teams to kind of see what I have. Like there is elements of that, I think, to the defensive side of the ball with how versatile like Brian Flores likes to be. He saw it on the offensive side of the ball, too.

I mean, you saw Ty Felton catch a ball today. You saw Ben Sims mix in. Like, they liked Ben Sims when they lost him to the Green Bay Packers three years ago after training camp. Like, there are guys that I think we're always going to talk about the, the, the, J.J. McCarthy, Aaron Jones, Jordan Mason, Justin Jefferson, Jordan Addis. I don't need to keep going down the list. But I think it's something to keep an eye on at home if you're watching over the last four weeks of the season. You're going to see young guys, I think, get opportunities, and they should because I think you kind of have to figure out where you're at heading into next season with all the pieces to the puzzle.

So I liked that too. I think Tyringham Dawkins, I don't think he actually got credit for the fumble recovery because I think there was a penalty. But he looked like a little fullback. He got the ball. He ran over a couple of guys. I thought he cut back against the grain. And like, I joke, but like those are the things you don't know until you see a guy in the game. Ty Felton, another good example.

He caught a little screen pass, made a little juke, step, put, put in the ground, got outside first down. Like those are little moments, very small data points that you can kind of pull back on, I think, when the end of the season rolls around and say, like, yeah, maybe we got something here. But you don't find that out. Look, look at us closing the loop. You don't find that out until the bullets are alive. Just like J.J. McCartney didn't know for sure that he could or couldn't do certain things until the first time he got well. whacked. I think that same thing applies to everybody on the roster. And that's why reps matter. And that's why I think over the final four weeks here, we'll see more of the

young guys kind of mixing in. All right. Let's wrap on this. The Vikings on Fandul are minus 490 to win six games. So after today, they are very much favored to win six. But to win eight, they are plus 490. So that would mean three out of the last four. Which one of those bets would you prefer? And you don't have to factor in the odds. I mean, clearly it's a better odds play, I guess, to go with that they win at least six because they're more likely to win one than three. But which, if I told you that they either won six or eight, which one would you pick? I'd probably pick six because I don't think they're going to beat Dallas. I think Dallas is going to be pretty motivated. I think it'll probably be a closer game. I certainly think it'll be a

closer game than I thought walking into the building today. I truthfully thought the Vikings were just going to get destroyed every game the rest of the way, prove me wrong today, 31 to 0. But I think Dallas is a team they might have trouble with on the defensive side, but the way they've moved to ball. They should beat the Giants. Weird game, though, in the middle of the Meadowlands and the winter, like, who knows what kind of weather we're going to get.

Like, they should probably win two games, but I don't know if they're going to get that third. I don't think I can see them winning eight games unless something weird happens where weeks 18 doesn't matter to the Packers and they rest everybody. I guess that is something to bake into the equation though. If you're making the bet on Fan duel, they're not going to say, well, we're going to take that away because Green Bay played nobody. So maybe if you want to take a risk and say they're going to win three of their last four, they steal a couple here over the next couple of weeks and then they play a Green Bay team with nothing to lose or nothing to play for but i think i would sit more at six but for for that that's a big change for me because

i didn't think they were going to win five games um four and a half hours ago i thought this was it i thought they were going to go four and 13 i thought they had shown nothing so i think like when you look at big picture this game mattered not only for just like winning the football game but just confidence as a whole like they don't care what i think of them but i think there were probably feelings in that locker room of like, are we ever going to win another game? And you felt like what it felt like today to kind of finally look like the team and feel like the team you thought you were going to be. So I don't think they get to eight. I think they should get to six. It just win one more game. But I'm not, I don't know. Three, three out of the last four is going to be tough.

I think it is too. It really depends maybe if the Packers are playing starters. If it's Malik Willis and Micah Parsons is in street clothes, then maybe there's a much better chance. Well, I had made the snarky comment that you know you can't call j j mccarthy's first six games roller coaster because roller coasters go up well guess what we're going to have to get out the historical data for seven games because now you can call it a roller coaster today very much an up game for j j mccarthy and one thing that we know for sure is that we never know exactly what is going to happen next for the minnesota viking so they go and face the dallas cowboys and then we will go from there so thanks everybody for watching slash listening danes it's ony pioneer press and uh we will

catch you next time football football