Purple Insider - a Minnesota Vikings and NFL podcast - POSTGAME: Vikings escape with a win over Cardinals

Episode Date: December 1, 2024

Sam Darnold came up clutch with a big game-winning drive late in the fourth quarter to complete the comeback against the Cardinals as the Vikings improve to 10-2. Matthew Coller is joined by The Pioneer Press' Dane Mizutani to react to another close win by the Vikings. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Hey everybody, welcome to another Minnesota Vikings postgame here on Purple Insider. Matthew Collar along with Dane Mizutani, the Pioneer Press, inside the press box at U.S. Bank Stadium. And what a game it is to discuss. Hopefully these last couple of weeks you took your heart medicine because it has been reminiscent of the 2022 season with the way everything seems to be coming down to the final moments. I walked by Kyle Rudolph downstairs and I said, you're used to things like this, right? It never changes even if you're not here anymore. And that's kind of how it felt. A little bit of a throwback game where you actually did not feel like the Vikings

deserve to win the football game and somehow we're able to pull it out. And that is my big takeaway here for the day. Dane is that this is really the first time where we're coming to do a postgame podcast where I'm going to say, I think they did get outplayed for the vast majority of this football game. All the Arizona Cardinals needed to do was finish a darn drive, and they would have blown out this Vikings team, especially early in the first half.

They were able to make clutch stops, and clutch is the word of the day. Sam Darnold, second straight week with a game-winning drive. He was brilliant at the end of this game. Justin Jefferson gets back on the board with 99 yards. He was phenomenal, the end of this game. Justin Jefferson gets back on the board with 99 yards. He was phenomenal fourth down and six conversion. And I think we are getting to the point where we can say that Sam Darnold does not flinch no matter how bad a quarter was, no matter how bad a mistake was. If you need a game winning drive, he can absolutely pull it off. But this would probably be the one where I'm going to have the most criticisms of

everything out of all of their wins, because it was really the least impressive. I thought that in the past weeks, an onside kick, a couple of interceptions in the red zone, but they had played better than the other teams. I don't think that they played better than the Arizona Cardinals overall today, but also at the same time, Dane, 10 and two Sam Darnold, another just terrific, terrific ice in the veins type of drive. They get Jefferson going again in the second half adjustments were made. And the reason you pay Jonathan Grenard is because he can get to the quarterback at the biggest times of the game.

And it was an incredible way to finish that off with him. So here you are 10 and two, it's hard to be too mad about that. But as we break down the entire game, there will be more to say about things that went sideways and we'll break it down. So that's kind of my right off the bat, big picture feeling is this is the one you got away with. Uh, what was yours then? Yeah, I think that's probably a good place to start is they definitely got away with one today. Um, but I think in the past, like over the past month, we've talked about how, look, that game was better than the final score might indicate. Um, but, and they've still found a way to win the game in the end. And I think we're still talking about the same thing today,

except they weren't the better team today, but they still found a way to come away with the win in the end. And I think that is just kind of the encapsulation of this team so far is that they have just found a way. You don't get to 10-2 on December 1st without doing that. But I think they did prove something today, if you want to look at it in like a glass half full kind of way, we'll get into the areas that may cause some concern from the game itself. But this is definitely a game at 19 to six where we've probably seen teams in

the past and certainly teams that currently exist across the league might just pack it in and say, not our day. You know, we'll, we'll come back next week. We'll, we'll, we'll play Kirk cousins and we'll be better than they never did that. And I thought it was just an impressive response. And in the fact that they are able to walk away with the win on a day that they got pretty vastly outplayed for, I would say three quarters. I think in some ways, like you don't want to do this every week, on a day that they got pretty vastly outplayed for, I would say, three quarters.

I think in some ways, like you don't want to do this every week, but in some ways that's something that you can build off of or that you can have in your back pocket when it isn't going your way over the last now five weeks of the season. So not something the Vikings want to make a normal occurrence down the stretch here, but I think if you're looking at this, what does it mean? It means they can find ways to grind out wins. We've learned that when they've been kind of the better team throughout, letting teams hang around.

I think we learned kind of the opposite of that today. They can just sneak up and steal one if they have to. They stole one today. One quick thing before we get in, they stole one because the Arizona Cardinals absolutely should have gone for it on fourth down. People will say, why would they go for it? They would only be up three if they failed. Yes, but they would only be up three.

The Vikings would just generally speaking, teams in that situation always tend to clam up, play for the field goal. Instead, the Vikings were down six. They obviously played for the win. They go up one, they win the game. So they stole one. Arizona kind of let them off the hook a little bit at different times, certainly with that game management at the end. But yeah, they deserve credit. They won the game today in a game they probably shouldn't have. In the analytics community, that is called the field goal of death. And one of them was that they could not finish off a drive. The Arizona Cardinals had the ball all day at halftime. It was 40 to 20 in plays. They were actually running the football effectively for a large part of the day and seemed to forget about that in the red zone and just had Kyler Murray scrambling all over the

place. And then other times they just kind of gave up. There was a play at the end of the first half where they were like, ah, we'll just settle for the field goal. Let's not make any mistakes. And then it's they're at the five yard line at the end of the game. It's not like they were 50 yards back. They got the penalty. They completed a pass. They got close. And if they score a touchdown there with the best running quarterback, other than Lamar Jackson in the league, if they scramble with Kyler Murray for a touchdown, the game is over. And we're talking about a completely different outcome here today. They were the ones that left the door open for the Vikings to win the game.

And the Vikings should be very thankful for that because the way that they were completing passes, moving the ball, how gas the Vikings defense was, they had every reason to just try to score there and put the game away. And Jonathan Gannon did a favor to the Vikings. Now for the rest of the game, he did not do many favors to the Vikings. Let's start by talking about the first half and then we'll get into what went better in the second half for the offense. I think that you have to credit a good Arizona Cardinals team that is overachieving because their coach knows what he's doing on defense. They don't have stars. They don't have a Grenard. They do not have a Van Ginkle. They just got a bunch of guys and Buda Baker's

very good, but they were able to create a lot of pressure by confusing Sam Darnold. And you could see it. He dropped back numerous times in the first half. Where do I go with the ball? How am I going to get rid of it? And I think that I look at the tape, but I, my impression is that they sent pressures, but then understood where Darnold was going to be going with the ball when pressured. So he looked to his hot reads and they weren't there and then had to take a couple of sacks, probably better than throwing picks and trying to do crazy stuff, but it looks really bad. And they also seem to understand that, you know, the Vikings offensive line maybe wasn't going to identify some of these simulated pressures where you're dropping certain people, sending certain people. They played in zones, but with a really good understanding that the Vikings were going to push it downfield. And what it seemed Jonathan

Gannon was daring them to do, which the Jaguars did a few weeks ago, will you throw underneath over and over again? And Kevin O'Connell, the first half said, no, I will not. But then in the second half, he said, okay, fine, I guess I will. And that's where the offense started to kick up and put together some really impressive drives at the end. But in the first half Gannon, I think outcoached Kevin O'Connell for what they were going to do. And I think O'Connell is going to have to get these underneath options sorted out. There were numerous times where it's where TJ Ockinson, man, like he should be right there. Jefferson quick stuff.

Six yard catches by Justin Jefferson are fine. Nine yard catches are fine that they hunt so often the 30 yard play to him that it seems like they get away from that. Always trying to run a big play action, deep shot. And once they settled into, we can move the ball consistently. Darnold got comfortable. He got sacked much less. They had a couple of good runs, one of them from cam acres and got going. And then the other thing to mention. So I want to hear what your thought is on what happened in the first half, is that they were moving the ball and Aaron Jones fumbled it.

Jones, if he catches that one, it's like a nine yard gain and they're off and rolling. Jefferson was actually open on that play, but Darnold played it safe. This is a lot of fumbles now matching the career high of Aaron Jones for fumbles.

And you saw him use sparingly. Now, KOC found a way to get him in the end zone at the end. I think that should help his confidence. But there is now officially red alert on Aaron Jones and his ball control because it has been pretty poor overall this season. So your thought on what happened in the first half for why they could not get the offense rolling. Yeah, I do think the Aaron Jones fumble played a pretty big role in that because I think once you're starting running back fumbles twice in the opening quarter, he fumbled on like

the first drive of the game. You might remember Brian O'Neill just recovered it for a gain of six yards. So once you are on the sideline, you being Kevin O'Connell as the play caller, you see you're starting running back fumble on the first drive. And then you see you're starting running back fumble again on the second drive. This time you lose it and essentially give the Cardinals three points. I think that probably screwed with his brain and how he wanted to effectively try and run the ball. I think it probably makes you abandon certain things when you feel like if you hand the ball off to your running back, it might end up on the turf.

So I think that might've played a role in it. Something I do think also played a role in it. Aside from, I think you're right that like there are opportunities. And this is something I think when you're nitpicking Kevin O'Connell, we talk about often is that it doesn't always have to be the 25 yard pass down the field. So while I think that was part of the problem, I do think, and Sam Darnold admitted after the game, it's his

job to see the blitzes. And I get the same pressures are there and that it might look like something before the snap and turn into something completely different, but he was someone, or Sam Darnold came out in his press conference after the game and said, I have to do a better job with these slide protections at the line of scrimmage. A lot of these times where you saw Mack Wilson coming free on a blitz in the first half, that's just because Sam Darnold's not identifying who is coming and who isn't coming and sliding the protection.

It's obviously easier said than done. Brian Flores literally makes a living off of who's coming, who's not. But that's something I think played a role too. So when you compound the fact that everything is so far down the field, long developing routes, with the fact that Sam Darnold wasn't identifying pressure, I think it created this like pressure cooker where he didn't know what he wanted to do. He looked hesitant. He looked like timid to where he was going to throw. And you didn't really see that kind of go away until it was 19-6 and it was almost too late.

I think against a better team, it might be too late. So this is something that they need to clean up. I think you're right. Like you have TJ Hawkinson. He's someone you can use to defeat those pressures or those defensive looks where they're daring you to throw underneath. Okay, let me throw to the tight end that I pay more than any tight end in the league right now. I think there are ways to scheme defenses out of that moving forward. But again, I'll say it, they get to learn this lesson in a win. It might feel like

the sky's falling if they end up losing that game, because there were, there were a lot of things where you kind of shake your head and say like, that can't happen moving forward. Well, I also thought that the game started out just fine for the Vikings. They moved the ball down the field. Okay. They gave up a field goal. No big deal. They got to stop. They moved the ball down the field and they get to third and two. And this is a consistent critique of the purple insider post game show is they get to third and two there. They've had a ton of success when it comes to the quarterback sneaks. So run the ball, even if you only get a yard, sneak it for the first down and move on. And it was long developing routes. And there's just been so many times where the opponent seems to know at this point,

all right, they're not just going to pound it down our face on third and two. They're probably going to throw it because that's their extreme tendency at that point. So they either send pressure or they drop coverage underneath to try to stop the short pass. And then you end up with an incompletion. You're kicking a field goal instead of scoring a touchdown. I thought there was a little wind out of the sails there. And then the vibe for the entire offense, the body language of them after the Aaron Jones fumble, I think everybody was probably pretty shocked that it happened. They gave it up right inside the red zone pretty much. And then Arizona's got a chance there to score.

Once again, the defense in the red zone was unbelievable. I mean, I don't, I don't know the exact number. It must've been like one for six or something in the red zone today. So that, that stop was enormous, but it shouldn't have had to happen. And they didn't get Jefferson the ball right away. We were talking before the game, as we were having our breakfast here, like we were expecting just the Jefferson to get eight targets in the first quarter based on what had happened recently. And it just took too long to throw him that little screen, that little swing, that little, and Jefferson talking after the game, he said that they were playing zones that he felt like he could find space in, which is what happened on several

of the big plays. One that barely got in there. That was an absolute dart by Sam Darnold. I don't think I looked up, we have TVs over us here. I looked up at the TV and I did not think it showed really truly how tight that was of a throw. Uh, but you know, he got it in there on a couple of plays to Jefferson and then the big one on fourth down and six where he settles into his own. The timing is perfect. But my thought was first half, like, where is that play? Because it seems like Kevin O'Connell, especially early on wants to hit on those big plays early, try to get a lead. And if you score early in the game, you have a much better chance to win. And that may be part of his philosophy.

But for this one, what they needed was to get Jefferson going early, get in the Cardinals heads a little bit, and then start working the ball to other people. And I thought it just took too long for that to happen. So once they came out in the second half and all of a sudden it's like, okay, Jefferson, Jefferson. All right. Now I think it's going to be okay. And I felt like they really moved the ball excellently in the second half, but not getting it to him right off the bat. I felt like was a mistake. Yeah. And I think that almost came back to bite them, right? Like you wait that long to get Justin Jefferson, the ball. And then when you start to feature him as a main

component, as the first read on, on a lot of these plays, you're down by 13. So I really did think, and I think we, like you said, we talked about this before the game. I thought that screen that came with like five minutes left in the second quarter where they just kind of threw one to Jefferson in the flats, had Cam Robinson leak out in front of him and said, Justin, go make a play. I thought that was going to be the first play of the game, the second play of the game. I thought, just get your guy a touch, especially coming off a two-catch, 27-yard performance in Chicago. I get it. The offense exploded and went nuts last week. But there was kind of a cloud hanging over this this game where you know is are they going

to get just in the ball how much is he okay like I think you could have gotten rid of all that by just getting him a touch early instead you waited too long and like you said it almost cost you there was a play where and this goes back to it doesn't always have to be 25 yards down the field because if you throw him a screen on the first play, you get him a touch. It obviously wakes him up. It wakes the Cardinals defense up. It just keeps everything really obviously does go as Justin Jefferson goes. When Aaron Jones fumbled, when Sam Darnold checks down to him, Justin Jefferson is wide open 25 yards down the field on a crosser, pretty much the Justin Jefferson route,

how he gets a lot of his yardage in this offense. He's open. Sam Darnold probably has to let that rip. He had time to do so, and he moved off of it, and he checked the ball down to Aaron Jones, which wasn't a terrible play in a vacuum, but then he fumbles. So I think it shows kind of the it doesn't always have to be downfield. The way they tried to get Justin Jefferson, his first touch of the game,

was on a long developing route down the field, which I get. He's obviously very good at that. But I think today called for quick passes. Let's figure out a way to get him involved early. They waited a little too long. It did almost come back to bite them. But again, I'll keep saying it. Credit. It did almost come back to bite them. But again, I'll keep saying it. Credit to them for like, and credit to Justin too. Like some receivers

that we've seen in the past might just say, you know what? Two catches for 27 yards last week. I'm not getting the ball till the second quarter. Screw this. I'm, I'm not even running my routes hard. He was always pretty engaged still. And I think that's just kind of who he is at his core. We've talked about that a lot. So it's on everybody that they were able to kind of keep it rolling and keep the vibes, which were very bad and then able to flip them to be pretty good vibes down the stretch. So let's get into what happened for the Vikings to come back in this game because Arizona scores and they get up. Actually, if we go back even a little bit more, the interception that Kyler Murray through is

the most Kyler Murray thing. I think what we really saw is why Kyler Murray both got paid and probably won't win anything because he is so much fun to watch in person. This is my second time. I don't think I traveled to the game in 2021 in Arizona. Second time seeing Kyler Murray in person and both times it's hilarious. It's so hard to catch him. He looks like a cheat code. He's running around, running around. He must run 43 miles every single time he plays a football game. They're chasing him around. They can't tackle him. He's making some great plays plays and also even from the pocket when he can let it rip when he can throw with anticipation he made great throws today and then he's scrambling around and he heaves one up

into the atmosphere right into the hands of Byron Murphy and maybe he thought that was going to get out of bounds that he was going to throw it out of bounds. But that's where you saw, OK, those big plays. There's another side to throwing the ball up for your wide receivers all the time, which is the mistakes that Kyler Murray makes. He also wasn't really in command of the offense particularly well at times where they got delay of games and committed penalties. Even when today inside US Bank Stadium, to tell you the truth, kind of a morgue for a lot of this game. And I understand why, but I mean, when this team isn't just whooping the other team, I think all the fans are like, ah, they're screwing us again. And then they forget to cheer. I'm not even kidding. There are times in this stadium where the other team has the ball

and you're looking around going, Hey guys, you know, the other teams on the field, right? Are you still groaning about the last offensive possession? I mean, it was not loud in here until really the fourth quarter. And maybe that's the fans being exhausted from Thanksgiving week, or maybe it's them not buying into the team or the way they started the game. It sort of set the tone, but it still Kyler Murray was not smooth in his operation. And he opened the door, I think, for helping the Vikings. And then, I mean, he makes another key mistake at the end where he's rolling backwards and then throws it out of bounds and he gets the penalty that moves them back from the goal line where they could have potentially put the game

away. So I think that Kyler Murray's mistakes in the second half opened the door for them, including that interception. So on the defensive side, though, they make the pick when they needed it. They get the play at the end from Jonathan Grenard when they need it. They only allow the one touchdown into the end zone. Fabian Morrow was forced to play today. And I think it was very difficult for him. He hasn't played all year long. And then it's, Hey, remember this guy who's drafted like fourth or fifth overall. Yeah. You got to face him on like every play. So that impacted them. But it was impressive to me that the Vikings defense was still able to overcome having a backup corner in there and the amount of time that they were on the field. They were on the field for absolutely ever. And the Vikings defense

dug deep in numerous big spots. Yeah. The, the bend don't break cliche of a defense is often over played. Like sometimes I think the defense is just getting gashed and they don't allow touchdown and we're like, wow, what a gritty effort. But really, that was that was the kind of the ethos of this game today for the Vikings, because I think when you're playing against Kyler Murray, like you can drill down on certain things that you can't let happen. And he's just going to make them happen anyway, because he's so good. And I think you saw that when they were kind of moving the ball early in the game.

So the fact that they were able to tighten up when they got into the red zone, hold them to a field goal, not once, not twice, but three times in the first half. So it's only nine, six, when you're going to the locker room, that was big already. Um, but you know, that is the turning point of the game. After you go down 19 to six, the Vikings responded immediately with a touchdown on offense the first time they look competent all day but if you're the Cardinals even if you can pick up a first down if you can choose some clock and then if you can punt you can pin the Vikings back in into a territory where you say okay you just went 70 yards on the last drive. Do it again. Instead, like you said, Kyler Murray throws the ball to nobody in particular. At that point,

you're now it's 19 to 13 game. Byron Murphy gets the interception. You're right. The crowd was not into it today, but they were into it after that interception, a punt and a fair catch by Brandon Powell does not get the juices flowing in US Bank Stadium. An interception by Byron Murphy Jr. that the quarterback just threw to his former teammate, that does get the crowd going. And I think from that point forward, they were pretty engaged. But yeah, you look at, as much as I want to give the defense credit, and I think they do deserve credit credit a lot of this game down the stretches on Kyler you can't throw that interception there where the game has completely

turned because you threw it to Byron Murphy and you can't like it's a false start at the five yard line moves them back to the 10 and then it's the intentional grounding that moves you back to the 25 and when it looked like it was a masterful drive by him where it was like looking like the Cardinals were going to just put the Vikings to sleep, and then he's going backwards, he's going backwards, and then he kind of flings the ball to nobody. In that situation, your escapability is one of your keys, and I get it. At that point, Grenard and Van Ginkle were both bearing down on him. Just move, try and do something, Get outside and throw the ball away.

Instead, he kind of just throws it into the dirt. The intentional grounding penalty comes, and then the Vikings obviously step up and hold the Cardinals to a field goal there. So the defense deserves a ton of credit, but I think Kyler, kind of like Jonathan Gannon, did the Vikings some favors. I think Kyler did the Vikings some favors,

even if he proved to be kind of a thorn in their side throughout. Well, and this is how it really encapsulates what you're talking about, how I feel about the whole game, which is that if I was on the other side and I was doing red and white inside or whatever, then I would be probably losing my mind over how Kyler Murray and Jonathan Gannon gave away the game to the Vikings. That's what I would be talking about if I was over there. Not only the insane decision to kick the field goal to go up six, which I'm sure you can Google

it if you want to understand how this works, but I think the logic is pretty simple, right? That the other team will then play for a touchdown. So if you miss it and it's a three point game, the other team is more likely to play for a field goal to tie the game, to take it to overtime. This happens all the time in football. We've seen a million examples of it. So Jonathan Gannon giving them another chance. And there's a very, there's actually an even easier way to think of it is what did you want them to do? Did you want them to go for it or did you want them to kick the field goal? You wanted them to kick the field goal. I mean, I'm thinking if they kick the field goal, the Vikings win the game. In fact, I was saying that on the press road to everyone.

Like they just gave the Vikings the game and they did not only that, but the fourth down and six, I'm sure you'd be talking about on the other side, Kyler Murray's mistakes, not getting in the end zone when you get all the way there, not finishing those drives. I mean, there were a lot of things from Arizona side where they were right here, ready to put this Vikings team away and the end of the half, the way they manage that they run up to the line of scrimmage with 10 seconds left, stand around and spike it with a second or two left to kick the field goal. They could have thrown it to the end zone. They could have tried to make a play. It seemed like they were scared and they were playing

safe. And I don't know if that's just an inexperienced coach or whatever, but the Vikings were able to take advantage of that. So you certainly could say, Hey, the good teams take advantage of bad teams, mistakes, or mediocre teams mistakes. But I don't think this was one where top to bottom, they outplayed them. However, the second half for Sam Darnold, we can do this in the grades. If you want to start there, what we would grade Sam Darnold for the day. I think it's a very, it's a very strange grade to give because it's like a D minus. And then an a, uh, in the second half, Sam Darnold, it is remarkable. Absolutely remarkable. How many times this year we've thought, okay, this is, this is where Sam Darnold, the, the, the gravy train ends and he's not going to pull off the game winning drive or he's he's going to fall apart for a whole game as opposed to just a half here a quarter there he's not going to bounce back from

that mistake and here he is once again looking like it's no trouble at all just a Sunday afternoon on fourth and six straight drop back finds Justin Jefferson very very very well, brilliantly executed. And as you said, taking advantage of the interception, they give you a chance. Now you have to score. And at that point, and he finds a way to go down, get them in the end zone and come back in this game. So you can't say enough about Sam Darnold's resilience and the way that he played in the second half of this football game. And he still, once again, ends with over a hundred quarterback rating. That is 10 out of 12 games that he has done this unheard of, unheard of from Sam Darnold. So how, I guess,

would you grade Sam Darnold's game? I would probably, I mean, he he was he was pretty bad early on like i think d minus is fair but he was so good late like i don't know how i don't give him at least a b plus because i think even though he contributed to the fact that they were down 19 to 6 he brought them back and then walking onto the field with three minutes and 20 seconds left knowing you need to go the length of the field knowing the offense has been pretty clunky all day and then they just do it to go five of seven you know complete five of seven passes 57 yards and throw that five yard touchdown to aaron jones like when the chips were on the table sam darnold was spectacular so that to me like what is weighted more in his favor than the early in the game

struggles those certainly don't go away when you're looking at the game as a whole but how good he was down the stretch I don't know how it's anything less than a b plus because when they needed to score when they were down 19 to6, he took them right down the field, scrambled around in the red zone, found Johnny Munt for a touchdown. That kind of took the edge off. And then when they really needed to score down 22-16, he was just nails. And he continues to do this over and over again. One quick thing about anyone who's arguing that they shouldn't have kicked the field or that they shouldn't have just gone. The Cardinals shouldn't have gone for it on fourth down.

The Vikings converted that fourth and five from the 33 yard line. They had to go for it because they needed a touchdown. I would venture to guess and I don't know. I can't see inside Kevin O'Connell's brain. It's not something that was worth asking him about because in the press conference after the game, you don't want to ask about hypotheticals. But if the Vikings are down three and it's fourth and five and the ball is at the 33-yard line, they kick the field goal. They kick a 51-yard field goal and they say, let's tie it and let's trust our defense to get a stop.

Instead, they obviously go for it there. They get the first down and they keep moving and matriculating the ball down the field. But Sam Darnold is the reason they won the game. The defense obviously stepped up time and time again, kept the Vikings in it. But when the Vikings needed plays down the stretch, Sam Darnold was awesome. He also threw a touchdown to Aaron Jones, and Aaron Jones just flat-out dropped on a wheel route. And they end up settling for a field goal there to make it 19 to 16. Um, but from the fourth quarter on really the third and a half quarter on, he was awesome. So I, it's a B plus

because you can't just take away the early in the game struggles because that contributed to you almost losing. Um, but he was so good down the stretch. That's two weeks in a row now where got to have it drives. Sam Darnold walks onto the field, and you get it from him. So I'm with you. At some points in this game, I thought, like, maybe should they extend him? I don't know. Is this the thing that takes us down the stretch where you say, okay, he's turned into a pumpkin again?

Maybe that's my own fault. Maybe I should stop thinking like that. And because he clearly is just a good quarterback and it's okay for good quarterbacks to struggle sometimes, um, without it being a referendum on, well, they're going to go back to forgetting how to play the position completely. So he, he was clutch, um, down the stretch, really, really incredible game for him. I want to even maybe go a minus like he was so good um but i'll stay at b plus it's how we've kind of graded all year just kind of you know in the game as a whole um and i think to ignore the fact that he played a role in in the early deficit um is you know that's part of the game too the sacks were a big issue

yeah uh and i don't know whose fault it is exactly, whether that was scheme or it's Darnold not getting rid of the football or whatever it might be. But you can't go into half losing nine to six and get an a plus for the entire game. A plus for the second half, just absolutely phenomenal in the second half. And I did want to touch on that before we move on to

the other positions and different things that happened in the game is this whole idea of, well, he's going back to bad Sam or something. I think if you're, if you've been that guy who on social media is telling everybody, look, he's going to go back to whatever he used to be. It's a long time separated from when this guy wasn't a good quarterback. You have to go all the way back to 2021, which was a very, very long time ago. We were wearing masks in press boxes the last time that Sam Darnold wasn't a good quarterback. And I know he's a backup last year, but even when he got in for San Francisco, he was good. This is him. He can play. And the thing is that we don't have

to talk about the future and everything else or the past. Every single time we talk about Sam Darnold, we could talk about what he's done this year, right now, here today, which has been franchise quarterback level play. And he was that in the second half that when you have a quarterback that you feel like can go win in the playoffs or whatever you want to say, you expect that when you have a quarterback that you feel like can go win in the playoffs or whatever you want to say, you expect that when they get the ball in overtime, they're going to have a chance to give you a win. And when they get the ball down by six points, because the other team is dopey and gave you a chance to go win the game, you're going to take advantage of it and go do it. And that's who Sam Darnold has been. And without this version of Sam Darnold,

they're a 500 team. If it was the version that people thought we were getting, we're not getting that we're getting top 10 level quarterback play. And that's why they win this game today. And I don't see any reason to think it's going to disappear. Maybe when they were five and oh, there was a, okay, he played bad against the jets and had a couple of bad quarters against the packers is he gonna regress all of a sudden he hasn't he's just continued to play well and today it was against the defense that is not easy i think there were 11th and points coming into this game so it's not like it was some clown show defense neither is chicago from from last week he's done this against some good defenses and come up with big plays and

distributed the ball. And as you mentioned, that throw to Jones probably should have been caught. So he's even overcome some mistakes around him, including the Jones fumble. It just, it's been it overall this season, it's been a plus quarterback play this season. And I would say B plus today is fair on the running back side. This is why you traded for Cam Akers because he comes up with a big run there. Jones just needed a mental break. It seemed after fumbling the ball twice, Kevin O'Connell throws Ty Chandler out there for a series and kind of mixes in Aaron Jones after that.

Do you think it is injury related? Do you think it's random? Do you think it is injury related? Do you think it's random? Do you think it's mental? Aaron Jones has been so good for this team all year long, but every time he touches the ball now, you're wondering a little bit. Should we be worried that he's going to fumble the football, or is it just that everybody's swinging to punch the ball out these days and if they get it the guy's gonna fumble i i don't know which one it is i think it's i think the fumbles in a vacuum are pretty random like i now when they happen with the with such prolificness as they have over he's fumbled in back-to-back-to-back games for the first time in his career like well i think in a vacuum the fumble can be random because, like you said, guys are just so good at punching the ball out now.

Aaron Jones is fighting for extra yards. He has it high and tight, and then a guy comes in late and punches it. Like, in a vacuum, that can still be random. But I think when you're now Aaron Jones and you see him on the sideline looking despondent and he clearly wears his heart on his sleeve. It's both like a very big strength of his. And I think right now kind of a weakness of his,

because I think even if the fumbles themselves, like I keep saying are random in a vacuum, like as a human, you start to think like, I've never had a fumbling issue before. Do I have a fumbling issue now? And I think that's what Aaron Jones probably felt in that moment. He fumbled twice in the first quarter, twice the first two drives and he got benched like Kevin O'Connell said after the game like yeah he took a seat and it wasn't planned rest and I don't think it was like a benching of like how dare you go sit on the bench and in a tone for your

mistakes I think it was to your point like like, okay, this guy needs a mental break because you can't just have that much emotion and just be, have that fumble festering in your mind when you step back on the field. I mean, to Aaron Jones's credit, like he fumbled twice, he dropped the surefire touchdown in the end zone and he's wide open in the flat. So you better catch that ball. But when the Vikings needed him to catch the ball and turn the corner and get into the end zone, he did. But yeah, I think until he proves otherwise, you are within your right to be nervous every time he touches the ball right now.

I would venture to guess Aaron Jones had no problem with being benched because he's a guy who understands it. He gets it. He's been around the league a long time. He's as professional of a professional athlete as you will come across. And I think he understands that fumbling twice on the first two drives of the game isn't good enough. So he finishes with five carries for 22 yards. Like, that's not good.

He catches a touchdown. Like, it was a roller coaster day for Aaron Jones. I still think you're going to need him down the stretch. Like you can't just say cam acres is the running back now because Aaron Jones is still when he's at the peak of his power. So dynamic, but yeah, it's,

it's an, it's a concern that you can have certainly moving forward because like I said, back to back to back games. Now Aaronones has put the ball on the ground that that can't happen we we saw this last year it literally derailed their season in the first month and a half of the year that the ball security issue and kevin o'connell has preached it ad nauseum so he's kind of got to put his money where his mouth is now and he did to his credit today by by putting aaron jones on the bench but yeah this is a it's a concern and it's a fair concern at

this point um but you still have to lean on him he's your rb1 with a bullet now like you have to still lean on him but it's certainly something that i think it should be a worry down right now you know what i can't help but wonder is why the Vikings are so fumbly under Kevin O'Connell. They lead the NFL in turnovers since Kevin O'Connell took over. And I understand the downfield passing and interception thing, but I really don't fully understand why they fumble so much. I mean, that's, it's gotta be just a random thing. I think it is, but it's very weird. I mean, you're not hitting them hard enough

with the pool toys in practice. I mean, they have, every time a receiver catches a ball in practice, they do a thing. He turns up field and they whack them. With a boxing glove attached to a stick. They work on this stuff. And he's choking right now

because he's laughing at the fact that we see it in practice. We see it in training camp. At one point, Kevin O'Connell said they went on Amazon last year and bought a bunch of equipment to stop. Maybe it's just because they talk about it so much that it's like a self-fulfilling prophecy. But that's why I keep saying I think the fumbles are random, but it's a crazy randomness it is a crazy randomness and i also don't think that ty chandler by the way has to have been sent off the island i mean they put him in for one series and it was almost like kevin o'connell's face turned green with disgust that seeing ty chandler like that no no no i don't think so uh i think that he actually

has tremendous speed and could mix in a little more often. And maybe one of the causes is being banged up. Maybe it's also exhaustion. I know it's early in the game there where he fumbles, but the guy has been so much the center of their offense for in their entire running game for the whole season. They've started to get cam makers involved more often, but I think you're just going to have to rotate a little bit more than they have before. I also do fully believe that fumbles are random and that the guy, if he punches his arm instead of the ball, it's probably fine. We all move on and that's football. So maybe it's just a little bit of a bad run for Aaron Jones, the receivers and your grade. Oh, uh, I'll go. No, I want to go like C minus

for not for just Jones, but for the whole running back group, because, uh, acres came up with a big explosive run that got them into scoring position and also catching the game winning touchdown, being there and available, but they weren't picking up blitzes to, I mean, it's a D it's probably a D, um, for the receivers and weapons having Justin Jefferson finished with 99 yards, which he was still a little annoyed that he didn't get to a hundred after the game. Uh, but having him get to 99 yards, have him make plays at the end of the game. I thought when the ball went up, they caught it. TJ Hawkinson made a couple of plays. Johnny Munt made a play to score a touchdown where Darnold's scrambling. Am I remembering this right?

And he's over there and catches the touchdown. So, you know, I thought the weapons did a really good job today. I don't know if there was something they were supposed to be doing differently on those blitzes where, you know, Darnold took the sacks. I thought that that was probably more on the offensive line and on Darnold for identifying them but Addison made some plays Jefferson made some plays Hawkinson this is kind of how it's supposed to go I think a little bit more than uh how it had been going the last couple of weeks but the biggest thing is when they needed it the most they didn't drop any balls. Guys got open. They

made plays. Addison had a huge catch. Was it a third down conversion that he had? And then the biggest one to Justin Jefferson. So I can't give him an A plus in a game like this where they didn't stay on the field for a long time, but they did a very good job today. I thought once the offense got rolling and I don't know what grade you would give them, I'd probably be in the B range for the receivers and weapons? Yeah, I'd probably say B+, even almost A-, because they weren't the issue early on. I think the play calling was the issue.

I think the inability to recognize the pressure was the issue. But really, when the receivers or the pass catchers were asked to catch the ball they did they're the only person who really had a costly drop today was aaron jones so that goes to the running backs i thought like to your point this is how it's more supposed to look seven catches for 99 yards for jefferson four catches for 54 yards for addison three catches for 28 yards for Hawkinson with some pass interferences drawn in there too Hawkinson had a pretty big pass interference drawn late in the game Jefferson had one I think went for like 28 something yards so I thought the pass catchers

did pretty much everything you needed them to do even Even Jalen Naylor, like when nothing is happening, like he finds a little vacancy in the zone and he picks up 18 yards to kind of get the ball rolling down the hill finally. Johnny Munt, two catches for 22 yards and a touchdown. So Brandon Powell had a catch today in a pretty important down. They took Jefferson off the field and I was like, what is going on? And then, of course, Brandon Powell catches the ball for a first down, I think it was.

So I thought the pass catchers were really good today, especially late. And I think the biggest play of the day, besides the touchdown that Aaron Jones catches leaking out of the backfield, is the fourth and five late final drive of the game. Justin Jefferson finds that zone, that vacancy in the zone and he sits there and he catches the ball jordan addison had a nice catch on that drive as well i think it was a pickup of like 30 something yards maybe 20 um so yeah i thought the i thought the pass catchers were really good today i think probably in the b range if you wanted to go a i

probably wouldn't argue yeah maybe a b plus B plus there for the past catchers. I mean, the number one story kind of coming out of this and they did a good job of distributing the ball, but it's really that Jefferson was back involved and we don't have to worry about him saying there's truth to all rumors or anything else. And luckily for us, we don't have to have another press conference this week where we ask him why he didn't catch as many footballs. And it just is how this position works, the elite receiver position, that in 2022, he's the offensive player of the year. He still has five games where he does not catch more than or where he doesn't gain more than 50 yards.

That's just what happens sometimes to these guys. So him getting back involved the way that he did, uh, in the second half was impressive onto the offensive line. It's hard. It's just always hard each week because when they needed big plays in the second half, Sam Darnold had time to throw the football. I thought they blocked fine for running. Like if you don't, you know, fumble the ball, which he did on one of the runs. And then they got away from the run as Kevin O'Connell more or less typically does. The one four yard loss to Cam Akers was a weird play where it looked like CJ Ham had his block

and Cam Akers thought that he was going to block the guy inside. And the guy went back outside and made the play in the backfield. But even then the offensive line had it pretty well blocked up and it would have been a good gain had CJ Ham maybe turn the guy the other way or acres read the play the right way. They were able to run the ball. Darnold overall in the second half is protected and the sex. I'll be interested to see who PFF puts them on because I thought that they were on the quarterback. A lot, a lot of the sex, just holding the ball too long, not identifying a blitz. And this is a feature, not a bug of Sam Darnold.

He is going to get sacked and he's going to hold the ball for too long, but he needed downfield passes at times. He needed them to block up a fourth and six. They came through. I think at some point we just have to say it's a pretty good offensive line that on a weekly basis will maybe frustrate you a couple times a game and is overall pretty good yeah is it the Detroit Lions offensive line no but they all their guys are hurt right now too so it's not the best offensive line in the league but it's it's it

really doesn't feel like it's a weakness that can derail an offensive game plan like it felt in the league, but it really doesn't feel like it's a weakness that can derail an offensive game plan like it felt in the past. I think that a decision to finally sit at Ingram on the bench and put Dalton Reisner in the game has helped. I don't think Dalton Reisner has been perfect, but he doesn't lose his block in one millisecond. So Sam Darnold can't throw the ball downfield. I'll have to go back and watch because five sacks doesn't look good but i would venture to guess like you that a lot of those are on sam darnold one either not identifying the pressure like we've talked about or two just simply holding the ball too long they averaged 4.5 yards a carry it's kind of hard to

glean anything out of that because they had 15 carries today in total um sam darnold was actually near weird stat they all finished with 22 yards rushing weird sam darnold cam makers and aaron jones all 22 yards rushing that's not good but that's that's a weird stat um so yeah the offensive line overall i thought they were pretty good like we'll go back and watch. And maybe there will be, as there often are, when you look at the tape, like in a vacuum moment where you're like, ah, this was a horrible play for the offensive line. But it didn't feel like that culmination over the course of a game where you're like, they have no chance because they can't hold their blocks.

When they needed to go the length of the field twice in the second half, Sam Darnold had ample time to throw the ball. So I thought was a pretty good day for them hard to give it a grade I'll just say B yeah it is hard to give it a grade without looking back at it and it's also hard to know for sure whose fault the the free rushers were I mean when that's the way that the sacks come or when it's him kind of hitching and holding onto the ball, I tend to lean toward, I think it might be the quarterback there. And if sometimes there are pass protections where they know there's going to be a free rusher and the quarterback just has to take care of that himself and get rid of the football. And that didn't happen for Sam Darnold, whatever that is, they're going to see it again.

I can guarantee that because it really worked against them. Uh, but yeah, it's probably a B, uh, on the defensive side, this is an interesting discussion to have of like, what do you think of the Vikings defense today? Because it's a little bit of an inkblot test. On one hand, you could say the defensive line chased around Kyler Murray. He had to make spectacular throws all the time. They came through with a massive sack at the end of the game where they stripped them and almost ended the game right there. Then Jonathan Grenard just digging deep like a psycho and chasing down Kyler Murray. I don't even know how he got him considering how much he had been on the field, pass rushing over and over and over and over again.

I don't know how you run down somebody that fast in that moment. And Grenard has become this team's closer. He is the Joe Nathan of the group here. When it comes to the clutch moments, he comes through time and time again. They didn't make it easy on Kyler Murray. I think when you're watching the game and you're constantly saying, wow, how the heck did he escape that? How did he make that play?

Like the last two weeks, they have faced two of the most outstanding playmaking quarterbacks who are crazy talented when things break down. And those guys have made some plays on them. The red zone thing though, you have to also give the Vikings credit. I think you can criticize if you're on the other side, right? If you're on the other side of Arizona, you're saying we couldn't score at all in the red zone.

But that's what I was asking defensive players. Like, what happened? Shaq Griffin said they communicated extremely well. And Andrew Van Ginkle said we stopped the run. They couldn't run on us in the red zone, which was very important there. So I think that when it comes to like the defensive line, I don't really know. Like they got after him. They caused a lot of problems for him.

And at the end of the day, they finished with 22 points. But he did make some great plays and he did throw the ball downfield at times. Effectively, they did get the ball out of his hands quickly early in the game. I still think the defensive line did a pretty decent job today. I think so too. And it's hard, right? Because often like when you're just right after the game analyzing, you often equate how many times did the defensive front or the front seven,

whatever we want to call it, how many times did they sack the other quarterback? And if they sacked them a bunch, it was a good game. And if they didn't sack them at all, it was a bad game. They sacked Kyler Murray one time today, but I think you're more onto the right track of where to kind of judge this thing is that even if they didn't bring him down they made him uncomfortable a lot he didn't really like look comfortable for prolonged stretches of the game I think they helped force two interceptions by themselves by just pressuring the heck out of Kyler Murray on the one that went to Byron Murphy Jr. part of that's on Kyler for

just don't throw that ball up, but he has to throw that up because he's under duress late in the game. He wheels around and he has to kind of just wing one to the side because he's under pressure again. So, yeah, I thought it was a pretty good game, even though the stats might not show that it was a good game. They only sacked Kyler once. They allowed 154 yards rushing,

but I thought a lot of those rushing yards came early. They tightened up down the stretch. I also thought the Jonathan Grenard play that you're talking about, something Kevin O'Connell told us after the game and Jonathan Grenard also said is the dude was sick. He's been sick all week. If you look at after he chases Kyler Murray down, he goes to the sideline and he looks like he's going to pass out.

It's because he was tired. It's because he's been battling a head cold all week. But like to take a word out of Kevin O'Connell's book of phrases, like when his best was required, like all Jonathan Grenard did was strip sack Kyler on the last drive and then chase down one of the fastest superhuman quarterbacks on the planet in open space he actually kept him in bounds too part of that's on Kyler just go out of bounds there but when he turns back upfield I think searching for more yards there Grenard is because his pursuit and his motor is so good. So in a vacuum when they needed it, he was there.

But in the aggregate, I think it was still a really good performance from the defensive front or the front seven, whatever we call it. You know, when they signed Jonathan Grenard, I thought, good signing. That's a good player you're getting and pair him with a couple other guys and you're all right. I didn't know they were getting a mega star. I don't even know that they knew they were getting a mega star. I think they thought they were getting a good player, but I mean, he has been way more here

than he was in Houston and he was great last year for a Houston team that made the playoffs, but this has been superstar elite level. You look at his quarterback pressures, how many snaps he plays the clutch moments. I mean, he put his name right up there with the best pass rushers in the entire NFL. This isn't like a second tier type of player. This is a first tier player this year. So they get a high grade, I think just for that, uh, and chasing them around. I did think the front seven missed Ivan pace junior to finish some of those plays that they could have got maybe a couple of more sacks. If they had Ivan pace, it limited a little bit of what they can do. Blitzing wise pace is so good at just sneak it through. And they're going to face that in coming weeks

against good quarterbacks. We're not having pace does matter to them. The secondary is another one where at the end of the game, Kyler Murray averages under six yards per pass attempt. It felt worse than it was with the secondary. It just, it didn't feel great. It felt like Murray's just completing pass after pass that he's got the ball, the whole game. He's methodically moving it down. They Moss Fabian Morrow at one point who, Hey, come off the bench and face a great player right away. Also maybe highlights that Stefan Gilmore has been really important to them this year. And that hamstring injury cannot be bad for them because otherwise it will be really tricky to be able to fill that spot.

And the Cardinals credit to them, their offensive coordinator, Drew Petzing, he used to be able to fill that spot. And the Cardinals credit to them, their offensive coordinator, drew pets. And he used to be here. I, he just went after Fabian Marl. Oh, they got a backup in the game instead of someone who's a borderline hall of famer. Like let's go after him time and time again. Yet Morrow was in on a couple of plays where he was successful in clutch moments, the red zone stuff. You can't ignore it. Shaq Griffin finished it off with a touchdown buyer Murphy. I know it was basically a punt, a routine fly ball, but he's there and makes another plays got another pick. I thought overall they did a good job and a lot of the completions were underneath and it wasn't guys getting smoked time and time again. Yeah, I think it probably, almost like the defensive front,

feels like similarly, where you look at the game or your feel throughout the game is like, they're not having that good of a game. But then when you look at it afterwards and in the big moments, they stepped up. I can't stress enough, and I think we've talked about it enough now,

how important that Byron Murphy interception was to give the Vikings some life, to give US Bank Stadium some juice, and the secondary gets credit for that. And then obviously when you needed a play late, if he knocks it down, we probably don't make as big of a deal of it. But like Shaq Griffin comes up with an interception that just ends the game. It's over. Trey McBride finished with 12 catches for 96 yards,

and it felt like he was always open. But I think that, to your point, is just Kyler was dared to dink and dunk the ball down the field, and he did it successfully for the most part before they kind of just stalled out in the red zone. So if you want to take points away from the secondary for just allowing the underneath stuff, the stuff into the flats, that's fine. But then we also have to give points back for their ability to just tighten up when the Cardinals approached the end zone.

So I think it's a high grade there too. Like I think there were opportunities throughout this game for this thing to kind of snowball and it didn't because of the defense, both upfront and on the backend. So I don't know what the grade is. It's probably just B for both. And I think they were really at when they needed to be, they were great. But for the most part throughout the game, I just thought they were really good. Right. Sustainability to that. You don't want to be in the red zone all the time. It's not sustainable, but for this day, it probably is a B or even a B plus considering

they had to do it with one of their backups in and if you're telling me that trey mcbride's gonna get what 12 catches at eight bucks a pop okay fine i that's perfectly fine if you're gonna give up eight yards a catch to the opposing tight end okay all day long and that's kind of what they agreed to do to not give up those big plays and the vikings defense does play that way a little bit and then looks for the pick, the sack that they have a bend, don't break mentality, except for with aggressiveness mixed in in the front. The coaching today is a tough one.

In the first half, you would have thought that Kevin O'Connell was going to be fired the way that people reacted to the first half. I guess it's always that way when they have a three and out, that there's always going to be someone somewhere saying, see, Kevin O'Connell can't call plays. But I didn't love the first half approach. I wanted the ball to Justin Jefferson more early on. I think they all got thrown off, everybody, by that Jones fumble.

And they moved the ball down the field effectively to start the game. You needed to finish with a touchdown there and not with a field goal. The second half, the play calling at the end of the game, the adjustments that they made all terrific on the defensive side. I thought it was the right game plan overall to force Kyler Murray to keep everything in front of him and say, all right, look, you want to scramble around all day. That's fine. You're going to make a couple of great plays that make highlight reels, but you're probably not going to score a ton of points in doing it. Fine. They overall, they played with a lot of fire today. It wouldn't

be one of their better coach games of the season from my grading, maybe like a C plus because in the second half they come out and they move the ball so well that we have to give as much credit as we do criticism, which kind of lands me right in the middle on the coaching today. Yeah, that's fair. I think that's, that's probably right where it should be. It's kind of like talking about Sam Darnold, except now we're talking about the play calling that he's getting in his helmet. Not good early, very good late. That averages out, I think, right around to a C+. The only reason I think it gets weighted more for the player is because you have to go do it. And so that's why I think Darnold walks away with the B plus where the coaching might walk away with the C plus. I also do think, and it's not quantifiable, and it's not something I want to dive too deep into,

but the fact that they didn't just quit I think is partly on coaching too. 19-6, like I said at the beginning, I think some teams just go away. Some teams just say, this day sucks. We were terrible. We had too much Turkey. Like, let's just, let's,

let's play for next week. The team doesn't have a lot of that in them. Um, and I think he has created this like reality in their minds that like they can win every game. And I think part of that, you know, those high marks to air that goes to coaching in some way, shape or form.

But like I said, that's not quantifiable. So I don't want to give too much praise into that when I do think coaching was a big reason they were trailing for a large chunk of the game. So they stole one, and I think the coaching probably looks worse if we sit in here and we're talking about a 22-16 loss to the Cardinals. That's the thing, right?

If Jonathan Gannon goes for it and gets that touchdown, we are probably given the coaching like a D minus, but the play calling on the final drive was really good. And they convert on a fourth down. Uh, O'Connell's always thought about when your best is required. Well, is his best play call was required there to get the ball to his best player. It wasn't relying on anybody else except for Justin Jefferson. And on the defensive side, that was one of the all-time, like feels way worse than it ended up. Felt like it should have been 40-3.

They just had the ball for so long that you want to rip your hair out at times. Are the Vikings ever going to touch the ball again? And yet, 22 points, less than six yards per pass attempt, out at times like, well, are the Vikings ever going to touch the ball again? Uh, and yet 22 points, less than six yards per pass attempt. And they seem to have the right overall plan. They just needed a few stops at times to pull it off. The bigger thing here, our bigger picture, which is where we always end has a lot more to it. I think than it usually does. The bigger picture has always kind of been like, are they still good? Like, I don't know.

I guess I should be. I think so. Well, now we've gone sort of past that. I think we've just you're 10 and 2. You're past the are you good conversation? Yeah, you're good. You don't just go 10 and 2. That doesn't happen.

And when you look around the NFC and you look at what the Detroit Lions did, they messed around and almost just lost the game. They've lost a lot of their players on the defensive line. The NFC North is not fully decided here, especially when we look at the upcoming opponent. Kirk Cousins is falling apart and he may very well come back here and play much better than he did today, but he threw four interceptions today. Hey, when you guys evaluate the general manager,

let's all remember whose plan this was to move on from Cousins, not extend him. Of course, Kevin O'Connell responsible for signing Sam Darnold, but the bigger plan was always to move on from Cousins and get a different quarterback. Who's going to play quarterback if it's not Cousins? Oh, I don't know. How about Sam Darnold who has now 10 wins and a top 10 season? Well, Kirk cousins just through four interceptions cannot be overstated. What a great decision it was to move on. We will talk about that throughout the week. I'm sure. But that was highlighted by a four interception game from cousins who remember

did not have an off season. He had the Achilles injury and might just be physically fading by the end of a season. When you've taken a number of hits, this is all leading to me to ask you, do you think we're seeing Kirk cousins this week? Like, could they bench him? There was a story this week that they could try to trade him at the end of the season. If he doesn't play well and they love what they've seen from Michael Penix. I don't know, man. I assume that he's going to play benching him on his homecoming would be the worst thing you could ever do. Homecoming ish, I guess the worst thing that you could ever, ever do for someone. But now this was a game I was looking at going, well, you know, their defense

is really going to get tested and that Atlanta offense is pretty good and they're dangerous. And now like, this is a game you should really, really win. If Kirk cousins is playing anything like he did against Atlanta, but suddenly in the white hot light, the Vikings are a 10 win team, which Kirk cousins got to twice in six years while he was here. They are a 10 win team, which Kirk Cousins got to twice in six years while he was here. They are a 10 win team with a long way to go. Well, the Falcons are a bumbling 500 team. Does that sound familiar to any of you by the way? Oh, a 500 team that has shocking no shows from Kirk Cousins. Where have I heard that before? Anyway, oh, they had super high expectations. It came short of that, but they still won some games.

All sounds pretty familiar to me. But anyway, no more highlighting game than today. Sam Darnold coming through in the fourth quarter while Kirk Cousins throws the game-losing pick to the Chargers. And the Vikings are set up here. Seattle's not special. they almost lost today they kind of messed around you got the two games at the end with uh really good nfc north teams but i mean i wouldn't write off the idea that the vikings could still be going to detroit at the end of

the year with a chance to take the nfc. Yeah, I mean, everything they want is still right there. I mean, they're 10-2. The Lions and Packers play each other this week on Thursday. It's going to be pretty hard for Vikings fans to cheer for the Packers, but you should cheer for the Packers because if they win, then the Vikings heading into next week against Kirk Cousins, who to your point is broken. I do think he plays.

They have the Falcons have lost back to back to back games in very, very, very embarrassing fashion. It was a loss to a saints team that had just fired their coach and absolute buck kicking to the Denver Broncos. And then today, four picks against the chargers, including a pick six where you,

so you give them points. If you're Kirk Cousins and an interception, when you're at the 25-yard line late in the game going to score points potentially. We have seen that movie. But if you're the Vikings and you watch Thursday night football, if you're a Vikings fan and you watch Thursday night football, and you can get yourself to cheer for the Packers, if the Packers beat the Lions this weekend

and you beat the Falcons next weekend, you are then tied with the Lions. I get it. That means the Packers would then also, you know, bump up in the, in the standings and then the margin for error. If the Lions beat the Packers this week, it pretty much takes away any chance that the Packers can jump the Vikings, but you should be trying to win the NFC North right now. And so anytime the Lions play, you should have your eye looking to the side of like, are they going to win this game? Because they've looked vulnerable for the first time in a long time this week on Thanksgiving.

So the Vikings sitting at 10-2, I feel like when you look at the big picture, it's everything and more that you could have wanted this season so we'll see i mean big picture wise you're right like we're no longer talking about how good are they or like are they good we're talking about how good can they be um and even if detroit has looked like this gauntlet machine like thing that cannot be beat you're one game behind them right now i get it they have the tiebreaker because they beat you head to head but you're one game one slip up from them away and one you taking care of business away from from being tied with them and then i think we've all hinted at it that week 18 game could be enormous if it's for the NFC North. So the team's really good.

I think next week we're going to have a pretty nice depiction of Sam Darnold as the quarterback of the Vikings. Kirk Cousins is the quarterback of the Falcons. Look, it can still look really good. In fact, it can look very, very good with someone that isn't named Kirk Cousins. And then they're going to get to play each other, but they're 10 and two Sam Darnold led them to a victory today. And he continues to show, I think that like he can take them to the places they want to go. And like,

I think we're learning more and more about that each week, as far as just how far that we think he can go with them. Yeah. I just think that the timing of what happened to them last week and then the way that they lost Atlanta that is lost this week, it just is a reminder that they had decisions to make over several years and decided to go out into the unknown and take a risk on a draft, take a risk on a free agent quarterback who they got for 10 million. Think about this. Sam Darnold's 10 wins for 10 million versus Kirk Cousins, six wins for 45 million. Plus they are in dead cap hell with him going into the future. All of this, it could have been you, uh, is what I'll probably say

a bunch of times this week. Also though, you got to win this game. Uh, you, you do have to win this game coming up against the Falcons, because if you do all this, you get to 10 and two and you escape and you escape week after week, and then have Kirk cousins come in here, beat you. It will hurt the confidence of where this team is at. But final thought is, well, this game was random and they did luck out at the end and Arizona had every chance to beat them in this one. It felt 2022 ish where other games they've outplayed their opponents. They didn't necessarily do that today. Five wins in a row, two five game win streaks. You talk about coaching. Yeah. All right. For today, we'll give them a C plus for the season. It's an a plus plus plus plus

to have two five game win streaks on a season. It is so hard to get away with five wins in a row, no matter who you're playing, what the schedule is, where you're playing them to do that in the NFL is unbelievably difficult. And over this five game stretch, Sam Darnold has on the whole, I know one bad Jaguars game. He's played like an elite quarterback and that's the level he's playing really with TJ Hawkinson in the lineup. Teams can't stop them and they can only kind of stop themselves when they fumble or when they get away from some of the short passing stuff. I think this team belongs right in that conversation. I've been peeking up at the Eagles and Ravens. That's a really close game.

The Eagles are there. The Lions are there. The Packers are there. And you get another win to go forth and stay in that conversation. So they're set up. They are set up. And this was a big game for me. I don't know how you felt about it. It's a big game for me because it was a better team. It's not Matt

Eberflus who can't coach a game and is fired. It's not Tennessee who kind of got blown out today. It's not the Jags. It's not the Colts. Like this is a team that's been real scrappy this year and to find a way to beat them is important. Yeah, I think this was the first real test they've had in a month, and each week is a test in its own way, but this was a team that, even if people weren't expecting a lot out of the Cardinals at the beginning of the year, has proven to be a really tough out week in and week out,

and they certainly were today, but the Vikings get to leave the stadium feeling pretty good about themselves knowing they need to work on some things down the stretch but sitting at 10 and 2 in an nfc that we continue to say each week outside of the lions everyone is the same i guess the eagles have looked really good that maybe they are in that lion's now. But in the same vein, so have the Vikings most weeks. When you just look at the two five-game winning streaks in one season doesn't happen very often.

And the fact that they're able to do that, I think, puts them right in that conversation with anybody that probably isn't the Detroit Lions right now. So that's a pretty good place to be when you're heading into the final five weeks of the regular season with some pretty big goals heading into the playoffs. We'll see how this one turns out with ball towards a two point game there. And Baker Mayfield just down on the field that could play a pretty,

pretty big role in what happens in the NFC South. And if, if Baker Mayfield is hurt. So anyway, well, enjoy the rest of your football watching evening, a really compelling football game in the second half after everyone was put to sleep in the first half, but they move on and we will be back here next week. We get to have back-to-back home games. It hasn't happened very often this year. So thanks, everybody, for joining, watching, slash listening.

And we will have much to discuss leading up to Vikings and Falcons. Much to discuss. Thanks, everybody. Football.