Purple Insider - a Minnesota Vikings and NFL podcast - Sam Darnold's best game? PFF thinks so. (plus picking the schedule)

Episode Date: November 19, 2024

Matthew Coller talks about Kevin O'Connell confirming PFF's take that Sam Darnold had way better of a game than we realized in real time. Plus Manny picks the Vikings schedule Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Hey everybody, welcome to another episode of Purple Insider. Matthew Collar here to talk a little 8 and 2 Minnesota Vikings with you this evening. And as always on Monday night, Manny Hill will be dropping by within about a half an hour to pick the schedule as we always do. And you know, what's interesting is the NFL and the season goes along and things happen and crazy stuff and things we don't expect or predict. And the Viking season, of course, is one of those things just in general that we did not expect it to go exactly like this. But I think in almost every picking of the schedule, Manny Hill landed on eight and two after they got to somewhere like four and oh,

so here they are at eight and two after winning all the games against the AFC South. And, you know, it's, it's really funny because I can't escape the main conversation within the Vikings fan base, which is right here. First comment, they are struggling sadly, which I don't agree with. And that's been a hard road for me. These last three games, if you look at the way they've truly played and

not some of the random stuff, like three interception games that don't happen all the time or the pick that he throws in the red zone or the drop in the end zone that would have made it what 30 to 13 yesterday or a 98 yard touchdown the the strange things that kind of go on within games but if you look at the yardage the first downs how they actually move the football versus how the other team moved the football how they graded out as a team what DVOA said about them as a team you see that they outplayed these teams by a ton, by every other metric, except the scoreboard. And even then by the scoreboard, they still outscore these three teams by 25 points over three wins. They are still plus 74 over the entire season, which is

the fifth best in the NFL, I believe. And the definitely the fifth best in the NFL, I believe, and definitely the third best in the conference, only behind Detroit and Philadelphia. And also where I want to begin is talking about Sam Darnold, who had the best game of his season by PFF grade yesterday against the Tennessee Titans. Now your first reaction to that might be, wait a minute, I watched the game on television and I did not see the best game I've seen from Sam Darnold, but that's how football can be tricky sometimes. And that's why PFF exists, right? I wrote the book about it over here. The reason it exists was to try to take us beyond just what we see in the box score or what we see while watching and scarfing pizza on TV, really taking

us inside what the film said about the game. And this was confirmed today by Kevin O'Connell, by the way, he said he walked out of Tennessee thinking Sam Darnold played okay, and then went and reviewed the film and said, wow, they actually played amazing in that game, which I completely agree with after re-watching the game. And PFF had him as one of the highest grades of his entire career, if not his entire career, because, well, number one,

they had five drops in the game, including the Jalen Naylor one, which would have made it way different in terms of his actual box score would have matched up a lot more with a 90 grade if they had scored 30 points and he had another touchdown. His scrambling, his playmaking, his rushing was excellent in this game. He had a couple of scrambles where he escaped the pocket and found someone and made a good throw. And then it wasn't caught on one of them by Jordan Addison. There was also another that was not shown on the broadcast at all. And it was a struggle of a broadcast. That's for sure. I saw that Mike Rand at the star Tribune included this in his write-up

about the game yesterday of what a struggle the broadcast was. But they didn't show that when Jordan Addison got cramps, was on a specific play, he was streaking open. Darnold leads him perfectly into the end zone. He's got a leg up on the guy covering him, and he has to pull up because of the cramps. The ball lands perfectly in the middle of the end zone where Addison would have been.

That's a great throw by the quarterback and just a random injury. So overall, he didn't turn the ball over. He didn't take sacks. He navigated the pocket. He threw the ball well. He had a great game yesterday. And coming out of that game,

Kevin O'Connell said that he talked with Darnold and they talked about getting back to some stuff that he had done really well earlier in the season and the mentality and mindset that he had had earlier in the season, which I thought was kind of a supercharged game manager early in the season. I remember coming out of the first game, wanting to give Darnold an A plus for his performance, because even though there was an interception where his arm was hit and he wasn't perfect on the day with 400 yards or anything like that, he did a really good job of checking down when the check down was there twice yesterday, he threw the ball away when nothing was there.

Good job. Move on to the next play. And he was kind of out there with no tight rope because, or with no parachute, what's the saying with no net with no net on a tight rope with no net because they couldn't run the ball. And because Jeffrey Simmons is on the other side and he's doing a really good job of rushing the passer, as you might expect. And we can talk about the right guard performance if you want to and when he was out there with it all on his shoulders which is something they don't want and they've talked about well we don't you know we want him to be playing off the run and all those things well you don't want Darnold F to do it all himself but he did it against the defense with reasonably good players. It was not

a defense full of just jokers and okay, well, they're going to steamroll them or whatever. This was really good players on the front. And occasionally they did a good job on the back end as well. And yet he did a really good job in this game of bouncing back and has played this year like a top 12 quarterback in the league. That's where PFF has him this season. Quarterback rating, if you like the traditional stats, he's 10th. QBR by ESPN, he's a little bit lower than that, but still has played like a very good starting quarterback overall. And they've navigated some of the rocky moments, I think, after yesterday to get to a point where Darnold and O'Connell seem to understand each other and what type of mindset he has to have, and they've worked through some of the things.

There was a timeout that you wouldn't like but the false starts the delays of game those things have improved and working the ball to addison even though he didn't catch everything yesterday is something they needed to improve on uh holding on to the ball for longer keeping the defense fresh they did a tremendous job over the last couple of games so when you say that they're struggling i just they're an eight and two team that has won three you say that they're struggling, I just, they're an eight and two team that has won three straight games that they're supposed to win, but they won them. How many times in the past have we said, Hey, they just need to win these three games in a row that are right there for them. They're the better team and they win two, but then they blow the third one or they blow the

first one. And then they end up in the hunt and then they blow another one and then they're out of the hunt. That's been the reality for Vikings fans for a long time. And in this run, they didn't do it. And now as we look forward, there's a lot of really big tests that are coming up against similarly strength teams in the ballpark type teams, which is Arizona, Atlanta, just for example, that are on the schedule and Seattle. They beat the 49ers yesterday. All those teams can get hot in a day or they can struggle in a day. But the fact that the Vikings have a top three defense in the NFL is the difference between them and those other teams where some days Kyler Murray or Geno Smith or Kirk

Cousins is way up and sometimes they're down but if they're down they lose where the Vikings won the games where Sam Darnold didn't play the best and then when they didn't have the running game going Sam Darnold stepped up to find a way to win and the way I look at it as they have gotten through the gimme part of their schedule with all the wins that they were supposed to get and now are in a position to play just over 500 football and go into the playoffs with 12 wins and probably have to go on the road just because of the organization of the playoffs and rewarding division winners, which is stupid and should not be how it is. You should just rank them by their, uh, by their records. I'll never understand why they do this, but to be favored, uh, starting in the playoffs, that's the position they've put

themselves in. Now they still need to go do it. They can't fall apart and lose four out of the last, how many they got? Seven, five out of the last seven and come up with some mediocre season still and only win 10 games still, because that would have a very different reaction for me. But I think that, you know, the old saying is you are what your record is. We know that not to be completely true because we all watched the 2022 season and we all knew that that team had more weaknesses than, uh, than they had strengths to be a 13 win team, right? The defense was struggling so much. Uh, Kirk cousins was kind of up and down that year as he always is. And they escaped at the end of a bunch of games, but that's not really been the case for this year. I think it's, you are what the accumulation of your data says you are, which is

not as cool of a saying. It's in fact, an incredibly nerdy saying, but I also think it's true. When we look at the expected points added, the DVOA, the point differential, the expected win loss, which is based on the point differential and all of these things put this Vikings team in a box that says second tier contender. That is a pretty good place to be. It's not the Lions. They're one team that is crushing it this year and is dominating everybody and has a really good chance to go to the super bowl they'll go into the playoffs with by far the

highest chance to go to the super bowl but there's only maybe three first tier contenders in the whole league two of them played each other yesterday and that's kansas city and buffalo which you almost feel like is guaranteed to see each other again in the AFC championship game or somewhere along the lines in the playoffs. And then you have the Lions and you have the Eagles are a second tier contender in the Vikings. And then there's another notch down. It's it's not the worst place in the world to be. You would have preferred that they won these last three games by 52 points. Of course you would have. Although I would wonder, and I don't know if this exists,

if you could create an expected score based on first downs, based on yardage, based on time of possessions, because I would have guessed that the expected score over the last three weeks would have been something like 50 points. And halftime of yesterday's game the Vikings over their 10 quarters of football against the AFC South had out gained their opponents by 500 yards in those games so it's agitating to see them for for all of you and for I'm sure Kevin O'Connell and the coaching staff to see them give up a 98 yard touchdown and to see them against the Jaguars not finish those drives that were right there. And all of you who said, hey, if you play like that against the Jaguars, you're not going to

win very much. You're absolutely right. Although yesterday, I think the Titans have a good enough defense to be a team that's much more successful. They just haven't scored any points on offense or had the ball on offense at all. So they have a reasonably good defense and the Vikings felt that by not being able to run the ball. The overall point is that as of right now, what we have is kind of two categories of opinions on this team. You have the, Hey, they're eight and two shut up. That's great. Everything's great. And you have the, they can't possibly win anything. You shut up. And the truth is really slid more toward the people who are saying, Hey, they're eight and two, at least when we look at all the other numbers, but it's not completely to that point. It is a team that has things that can have

variance to them. The quarterback is at the top of that list. Sam Darnold is going to have variance, but he's not Jameis Winston. It's not like he's out there completing 55% of his passes and throwing 30 picks. He has more turnover worthy plays than you'd like, but he's not even at the top of the league in terms of like, he's not the league leader. He's in a group of quarterbacks who take more risks. It's just that the Jaguars caught all of the risks that he took in that game. And that was a pretty tough look. They have things that are going to be harder to overcome

depending on their matchup. One of those things being the secondary, that when you blitz 50% of the time is 48% against Tennessee. Sometimes you get burned. You get burned for a 98-yard touchdown. You get burned for a handful of other plays because you're asking your corners and your safeties to cover more space than is possible for them out there. And then Metellus has to take a better angle on the football on that one play. And you can't really play a heck

of a lot of man coverage that still exists as a general issue for this team. If they're going to ramp it up, they're going to get all those sacks and they're going to kill all those drives, but they're also going to give up some big plays at times, live by the blitz, die by the blitz. We really saw that against Will Levis in Tennessee and the running game now suddenly becomes a big concern because the left tackle previously, when Aaron Jones started off really well this season was the premier run blocking left tackle outside of Trent Williams in the whole league. Derisaw was graded higher as a run blocker than he even was a pass blocker. And he was graded great as a pass blocker. Cam Robinson is the opposite. Cam Robinson or not the total opposite. He's a really good pass

blocker. He's done a great job over these last couple of games. You haven't really felt the impact of who's coming off that edge, but he's not a run blocker. I don't think his body is kind of shaped right for that. He doesn't play with the same twitchiness and quickness and flexibility as somebody like Christian Derrissaw. And that's going to be a shortcoming. The right guard situation, if you want to talk about that, I thought Dalton Reisner, and here's a good way to compare it, because Dalton Reisner did not grade all that well in the game. But the last time they played a player of Jeffrey Simmons caliber, the right guard graded a nine out of 100 that was Dexter Lawrence in week one so it was a 55 for Dalton Reisner and he allowed two pressures Ed Ingram allowed six when they played against

Dexter Lawrence so that's what you need from Dalton Reisner survive hold up the pocket for Sam Darnold be a little better with your details, which I think was maybe the main issue for the coaching staff is that he was still just not executing the plays the way that they were supposed to go. But you're not getting better at run blocking, which now becomes a concern. So as we go forward, they're an eight and two team whose record and data says they're very good it does not say that they're not flawed or perfect it says they're very good and as we go through this i think it's going to be fascinating to see how they deal with the adjustments for those things how darnold takes on having more on his back and it's going to lean more on Hawkinson and Addison

and Jefferson, because I don't think you can be a run first team anymore with the situation with the offensive line and the fact that Aaron Jones is banged up. So now this season comes down to, can Brian Flores' defense take on some pretty good quarterbacks the rest of the way? It's not Joe Montana and Dan Marino, but it's Kyler Murray. And Caleb Williams has had his moments this season. That's where it begins this week. Kevin O'Connell has been outcoached offense versus defense by Matt Eberflus a couple times where Eberflus' defense has really given him a lot of problems. So it starts there in Chicago, which is always a tough place for the

Vikings to play. The weather might be a little nasty, which seems to have caused Sam Darnold some problems. The challenges that are going to come for this team going forward are what will ultimately shape what the season ends up becoming. So when we pick the schedule, when we do the W's and L's over these final seven games, there's a lot of them where they're close to a coin flip. And I'm sure that Vegas is going to agree with that, that when Arizona comes here, it probably won't be the Vikings favored

by eight points or something. It will probably be close to just your regular home field advantage because the gap between them and the lions is, is, is pretty big, but the gap between the Vikings and all the other teams is fairly small. And we're going to see it separated over these coming weeks. It's going to take really good quarterback play. Like we saw,

it's going to take really good defense. Like we saw these last three weeks. And that's how it, that's how it's going to end up playing out as of this moment though i don't see any reason to look at this team and go ah well you know they're they can't do it they can't do it uh i see a lot of that and i don't understand it like because they just didn't win these games by enough points. Um, they did outplay those teams by enough, but they didn't maybe win by enough points for everybody to party, uh, by the fourth quarter. Maybe that's, that's the issue.

And I've just been thinking about a lot of different things for reasons why there isn't a little more buy-in and a little more excitement about this team. Because when you go through the storylines for this team, Sam Darnold's a top three story in the whole league. A guy who was left for dead by the Jets, becomes a backup quarterback, and is now a top 12 quarterback in the NFL, and is playing extremely well. And at every turn where so many of you and the rest of the world says, ah, yeah, I knew the real Sam was going to show up sometime. Then he comes back the next day and puts up his highest graded game of the entire season against the Titans. And they don't win it without him playing as well as he did. And he's bounced back from bad

interceptions, down moments, mistakes, all those things at every turn and continue to find ways to win. And I think in the past, we've talked about this with even someone like Teddy Bridgewater, where there's a lot of Teddy Bridgewater fans. Why? Because he would, it wouldn't always be perfect, but find ways to win with great defense and all that stuff. And, you know, sometimes doing that, you know,

against a bad team is something that you have to do, right? You have to find a way to get by. You're not always going to play perfect. I don't think that that necessarily means you're going to go win the Superbowl. It doesn't project to, yeah, you're going to go win the Superbowl. It doesn't project to, yeah, you're going to go win the Superbowl. But I also think that with Sam Darnold doing this, he has had an incredibly gritty season. That's been really entertaining to

watch. And I also think he's been one of the most root for a bull players since I've covered the team. I mean, this is what you want. You want to see a guy have a redemption story and handle it with class the way that he has and never throw the jets under the bus when he had every opportunity to, especially during jets week to say, yeah, I'm going to, uh, you know, show them for getting rid of me or whatever. And he never did that. And then you have these players that they brought in this off season that the general manager and coaching staff had to bring in Grenard, Van Ginkle, Cashman, these really, really exciting and super skilled players that they brought in.

They're just playing great. Van Ginkle's having this incredible season with eight sacks and two pick sixes. Grenard's third in the league in pressures. There's so many great performances happening, and Brian O'Neill has not allowed a quarterback pressure since the Rams game. That is mind-blowing. You are seeing some guys step up in ways that even they never had before in their careers under this coaching staff. And sometimes, and maybe this is just a product of social media, too many comment sections and things like that. But sometimes I just want to say, what, what, what are we doing here? What are we doing here? Because in 2022, I understood. And I was on the side of this team

just keeps playing with fire over and over again, and they're going to get burned. It's going to stop. The magic ride is going to stop, but this hasn't been a magic ride. It hasn't been crazy endings and lucky things. And oh, they got a bounce at the end of the game that helped them win. And they never should have won it. We haven't had those things at all. I also was thinking about this today. If JJ McCarthy had not been drafted by the Vikings, if they drafted a defensive tackle with that pick and just said, Sam Darnold's our quarterback, we're taking our defensive tackle. And there was no JJ McCarthy, I think you would feel a lot differently. I think that people would feel a lot differently. Not not, I think it's in part because JJ McCarthy gets hurt.

People think the season's sort of over. Well, we'll see you next year. Start to look toward the future. While McCarthy's really the franchise quarterback, not so much Darnold and this season, it's not real. It doesn't mean anything. And my whole mentality was, well, let's just see what happens because I thought there's enough talent here. And maybe we said it how many times in the off season, maybe with Darnold, at least there's a chance. If it was Gardner Minshew, there would have been no chance. How about that move by Kwesi and O'Connell, by the way, they could have had Brissette. They could have had Minshew. They could have had whatever, Ryan Tannehill.

And instead, they have a top 12 quarterback that they went and got and made a great decision there. So I wonder if there's a little bit of, well, I'm really looking forward toward the future and don't want to invest myself in this team with some people out there. But it's become the kind of the biggest storyline and thing that I'm interested in talking about is just at what point, like if you're not in on eight and two, I can understand five and oh, because you saw the 2016 fall apart. Or yes, right.

2016. And the number of people who said to me this is 2016 we're going to fall apart again it was tons of people maybe maybe after those two losses people decided well they can't really win anything so i'm not going to invest in this team and then every week you try to find a reason not to that could also be it uh And maybe that's where the Minnesota sports defense mechanism kicks in. I'm not really sure. But as far as I've been here since 2016, and if I were ranking the most fun seasons to watch from 2016 to right now,

well, to cover, I mean, this 2017 is clearly number one, but this might be number two. There's no Minneapolis miracle yet. Maybe that'll happen, but it's up there for me. And I guess I just want to sort of suggest as we now get into the real, it could be a rollercoaster toward the end here with some good teams coming in, a lot of home games, who knows what happens.

I guess I just want to suggest trying to enjoy when your team has a fun season. I mean, I spent a lot of 2017 arguing with people over whether Case Keenum was the real deal or not. And it wasn't really all that fun at times because it just seemed like people wanted to be right about Case Keenum more than they wanted to see their team win in some cases. And maybe we've got a little bit of that with Sam Darnold, I don't know. So let me run through some of the comments

and then we'll have Manny Hill popping in here very shortly to pick the schedule and continue the discussion. I want to start getting right into the Bears as well, because it is a fascinating clash of two teams that replaced their coach in 2022. And they're in a little bit different spots right now. Manju says, looking back at our wins, how impressive are they? Green Bay is the only one that withstands the test of time. Well, I mean, the Texans are not a bad team. The 49ers were more healthy. The 49ers had their guys.

They didn't have McCaffrey, but they had everybody else at that time. That's still a pretty impressive win. The Giants' win is impressive because they blew them out. I mean, the Colts are not a terrible team. Flacco played pretty terrible. They still beat them by 10. I mean, really, isn't the Detroit game impressive? They're a conversion away from winning that game against Detroit.

I just, I don't, I mean, this is probably it. The Sin family says no one is really recognizing the Vikings are 8-2 because Sam Darnold is the point guard. I think that that's right, is that because it's Darnold, everyone is waiting for the other shoe to drop, and then they thought that it did against the Jaguars, and it sort of did against the Jaguars, but then he bounces back, and that was my point of bringing up the the PFF grade is that he had a tremendous tremendous game yesterday that went way beyond

what you what you really saw once you had to dive into the throws that he made the plays that he made under pressure the amount of stress he had to handle with no running game there. It was a very well done bounce back for Darnold, which could bode well for the rest of the season. And the other shoe has not dropped on him. He's had inconsistency, but they've gotten through it and it has not dropped to the point where he could play really well against the right teams and he could win down the stretch and into the playoffs. Speaking of down the stretch, let us bring in one Manny Hill, who is going to break down the rest of the Viking schedule as we have done every Monday. And Manny, I feel a little bit of deja vu today because a big part of the discussion is still whether people want to buy into the 2024 Vikings or not because their wins have not been impressive on the scoreboard even if they are impressive in

other ways like first downs I think it was 24 to 11 in first downs against the Tennessee Titans. What I think, Manny, tell me what you think about this, is that these three wins were so boring, so uninteresting. Those teams are dreadful. You trashed the Titans like you never trashed an NFL franchise last week, and it was totally deserved. Nobody wanted these games. Nobody cared about these games. It was, can you just win them? And, and the last game that everyone got pumped up for like, Oh, this is a big one was the Rams

and they lost that game. And I don't think that they've really shaken off that feeling. Does a win in Chicago, maybe do that? I don't know. What do you think? Considering the state of the Chicago Bears right now, I'm not sure if that will change anybody's mind. I feel like with the way the Bears have kind of gone through this sort of little mini tailspin the last few weeks now, I think they played better against Green Bay yesterday. And they very, very well could have come away with a win if that field goal wasn't blocked at the end.

But I think with kind of the overall tone of the Chicago Bears right now, where it just kind of seems like, eh, Caleb Williams is kind of struggling and Ibra Fluis might get fired and all of this stuff, like, it does still kind of feel like if the Vikings go into Soldier Field on Sunday and lose, then everybody's still kind of feel like if the Vikings go on a soldier field on Sunday and lose then everybody's still going to be like oh come on what's wrong with this team I mean because it just

even though they've won three in a row people still don't seem to feel great about this team now I'm kind of in a little bit of a different boat um with that I'm more so just happy that they're eight and two and these were three games that I thought that they should win, and they've won them. And it's looked ugly at times, but you don't have to apologize for a tally in the W column. And so, you know, they've gotten these wins. They've played really good defense in all three of these games after people were kind of questioning the defense against Detroit and against the Los Angeles Rams. You know, it feels like the defense has gotten back on track, albeit against inferior opponents. And I think that this is going to continue,

you know, a little spoiler alert on the picking of the schedule here, which we'll get to in a second. But I think it is going to continue against Chicago because the Bears are kind of in a bad way. And overall, I can't really complain too much about an 8-2 start. There's always going to be little things that you can nitpick, but I think overall, they're 8-2, and this is fun. I've said this before, Collar. This is probably the most fun I've had following this team since uh back in 2017 i've been trying to think of different metaphors to describe my feeling in covering this team and

one of them might be do you ever have you ever been invited to a wedding where you didn't know the people that well and you're like oh man was i really invited to this like i i guess i know a lot of people i know are going so i kind of gotta go or maybe hey it's like my superior up the chain and i should probably go to his wedding you know right and you go and you kind of drag ass in there and like all right i'm here and then they got great music and there's a band playing and everybody's dancing and oh the food is here and it's actually pretty good. This isn't the best time I've ever had, but well, this is this. I'm having a pretty good time right here.

And then if someone came up to you and said, oh, man, that bass player for the band was kind of annoying. You're like, dude, come on. We all thought this wedding was going to stink. And it's great. We're having a good time. So that that might be one way that you and i have looked at this thing where there was a very real chance based on who they were bringing in a

quarterback that it could have gone badly and to have it go this way also you and i are such history buffs on the league that when a jeff george shows up and he's doing the thing we're like this is history here this is let's go right this is one doing the thing, we're like, this is history here. This is let's go. Right. This is one of those years for the Vikings. This is like a motif for this franchise. And here's Jefferson setting the record that no one, including the broadcast, really even

talked about yesterday with him setting the record for the most yards over five years. Kind of reminds you of like, you know, Randy Moss and Jeff George, or it's not quite Randall Cunningham, but the same sort of ballpark. So that one is hard for me to go, Oh man, you know, the left guard got beat yesterday. It's like, I don't know, come on, look at that. Look what's happening here. And the other part of it, uh, well, I was trying to think of another, like a metaphor for Darnold, where I've used this one before, and I think it works, which is if someone has been in a bunch of car accidents because they're kind of a bad driver, and they're like, no, I took driver's ed, and I've got a better car. It's got better mirrors. You're like, I don't know, man. I think you're still going to run some stoplights.

I think it's the same way where even if it's been a few months since that person got an accident, you're kind of waiting for it. You, you're watching your phone when they're driving out there. Like, I hope that grandma's going to be okay. Uh, and then when he does bump into a stop sign, uh, against the Jaguars, then you're like, oh man, he can't drive. You see? And I thought that yesterday that he showed what is really there with Sam Darnold, which is a stunning resilience. And to even be here starting after some of the tough times he went through is impressive. But I really think that he has shown remarkable ability to get over what happened and get

back out there and play well, even when things aren't doing great. And that's, I think, as far as the entertainment, the fun level, that's why it's high for me, even if every game has not been the most fun entertainment, fun level, 2022 had the most fun games. We just knew that it wasn't really real as we went along. This feels more real. The games are a little less fun, but seeing him overcome what he had been through before and even some stuff during the season, only one of these 32 teams ends the season happy. They end the season the way that they hoped it would end with winning the Super Bowl. And the other 31 teams ultimately are not satisfied, you know? So the reality is, is, you know, are the Vikings likely to go to the Super Bowl and win it this year? No, I don't think it's very likely at all.

And I think because of that, I think you have to find other other ways to kind of make this season enjoyable and fascinating and interesting and worth paying attention to because if you just put everything especially with the expectations for this team being low if you put everything about this season on rather or not they're going to go to the super bowl and win it you you might as well just stop you might as well just stop now because the likelihood that they're going to go to the Super Bowl is just, is very low. To me, it's just, to kind of piggyback off of what you're saying, I'm just kind of looking at what we're seeing with this team

and just finding ways to enjoy it, to enjoy the ride because we just, you know, and not to bag on the, not to continue to bag on the previous quarterback, but we just went through six seasons of constant frustration and arguing with people back and forth about whether this guy is worth the contract. Can they restructure his contract and bring in a guard? They don't have enough cap space you know should spielman trade this pick away to bring in another guard or another defensive or whatever the case may be i'm just enjoying the fact that we don't have to endure that anymore and again i'm not trying to

like put this put the last six years entirely on kirk cousins but i think the fact that this season has been very fresh and new and it's a new quarterback. It's a guy that's been kind of labeled a bust by everybody. And he's actually playing pretty well this year, save for the Jacksonville game. And maybe the Jets game wasn't very good either, but overall, like Sam Donald's been pretty good this year. How can you, how can you like nitpick and, and, and get, you know, out of, out of control crazy about, you know, about that? Like, this is, this is cool. This is fun. I'm fascinated to see how it plays out. Maybe they, you know, they finished 10 and seven

and they kind of tailspin towards the end of the year. And Sam Darnold throws four picks in the last game against Detroit and it cost them a playoff spot then we've got some stuff to talk about you know what I mean then it's then it's still interesting one way or the other so I'm just really fascinated to see how this plays out to kind of see what Sam Darnold's final stat line is going to be at the end of the year to see how long this defense is going to continue to play at this level. I'm, I'm just, I'm enjoying this man. And there's always going to be little things in it.

Pick. I would like to see the corners play a little bit better. I would like to see the interior defensive lineman get more of a push, you know, the out, the, the running game wasn't great yesterday. I'd like to see that improve.

There's always going to be little things, but overall, like this is fun, man. I'm really enjoying this and I can't wait to see that improve. There's always going to be little things, but overall, this is fun, man. I'm really enjoying this, and I can't wait to see how this plays out the rest of the way. Ready to kick off some extra fun on Football Sundays? Grab Catan and keep the action going off the field. While Minnesota's football teams are crushing it, you and your crew can build, trade, and outsmart each other in the ultimate game of strategy. Whether it's during halftime or between big plays,

Catan brings a whole new level of competition and excitement to your game day. Visit Catanshop.com and use the coupon code PURPLE to get a 10% discount off Catan for a limited time. Again, Catan shop.com coupon code purple to get a 10% discount on Catan for a limited time only. The other thing is these matchups down the stretch, which we're going to get to in a sec are, are fire. Honestly, there's a lot of us bank stadium. There's a lot of good quarterbacks, great matchups. Could be a lot of close games that it comes down to.

There's a revenge game to talk about. There's division games. There's tons of division games here, two more against Chicago. And then one against the Packers, one against the lions. I mean, this is, this is a low in the season because you just played the AFC self and maybe there's a little season exhaustion and you need your second wind to get into it. Maybe they need to have a win against a good team like Arizona to get people going. Eventually they are probably going to lose

another football game, I'm guessing. And maybe that will be this week. I don't know that they're going to have a stumble where some of this stuff catches up with them. But it's, I think the main point is not that either one of us at any point are arguing, wow, this is the best team we've ever seen, or it's flawless or anything like that. I think that through three and a half games, they looked a lot better than what they've looked from that point on through the middle of the Packers game. They looked like an untouchable team. That's usually not what happens over a full season. And there's been some regression. There's been some, some injury to the left tackle. There's been Aaron Jones, not playing at quite the same level. The defense ran into the lions and then had to four days later,

play a quarterback who won the super bowl against the coach that won the Super Bowl and two of the best receivers in the league, and they weren't able to stop them. And then you just get these garbage tomato can opponents that you knock over in unimpressive fashion. So it's not like we've had a big marquee type of, hey, it's Vikings versus this team, big game. We just haven't had that in a few weeks. And even if, even if Indianapolis is actually a decent team, they're five and six, or even if the Titans do have a good defense, as we saw yesterday, it's pretty hard to talk people into that. It's the two and seven team, you know, that kind of thing. And that what this season is going to be, will be determined from

here on out. So all of these things that we're talking about, the way that I feel about the season, the way I'm talking about the season that is as of today, I don't know what's going to happen next, which is what makes it so interesting to me and what makes me excited to cover it and see where this goes, see if it comes apart, see if it rises to the challenge, see what KOC is made of. It's some big games here with Sam Darnold. See what this defense is made of. And I think I just came out of that game like, all right, finally, here we go.

Like finally the season begins again because they were able to go three and oh, so that's, that's more of the opinion than not not trying to say that any of the criticisms are wrong because people i think have the right criticisms of the current team not putting people away i mean somebody yesterday tweeted a vikings fan said can they just like end a team at some point and i said i feel the same way after the 98 yard touchdown like can you just put somebody away already they may not be able to do that they may have to play some closer games some more defensive minded games because they don't have derisaw and because jones is banged up but they

also are not like a team that i think is suddenly going to play arizona and forget how to play football or whatever right it's not that they've just beat up on bad teams all season. They've had a fairly decent schedule to go against for most of the year. So anyway, that was kind of the, the, the bigger point is it feels like they just got through the preseason and now it's time for the season to start again. Or, or it's like the, the, it's like the baseball season when you get to like July and it's the twins playing the Royalsals for the 12th time already this season. The Royals were pretty good this past season. But those years where the Twins were good and winged the AL Central every year

and the Royals were just losing 100 games. And it's July 15th and you go to a game at Target Field and it's hot and the Royals are terrible and you're just kind of like, eh, it's kind of boring. I don't really want to watch this. Let's get to August and September when the games like really start to matter. And you're really in the thick of that pennant race. And it feels like with the way this schedule is shaped out for the Vikings. Now, when you get kind of get past this game against the Bears, you take care of business there.

Then it's Arizona, Atlanta, Chicago again at again at home green bay detroit all those games then it becomes like august august and september of the baseball season where things start to really heat up one more thought on this because it's what i've been thinking about through most of the day and i was on with our friend chad hartman on cco and he was asking me about it because that's all he's seeing as well for fans is fighting back and forth with each other no we're really good oh we think like just everything when it comes to maybe it's just social media in general but we're all on social media so maybe just society in general it feels like when you turn on the tv everything is analyzed in sports through extremes so if you if you watch nba coverage it's this guy

he doesn't have rings he's not good enough when people give charles barkley a hard time about not having a championship it's like hope you realize charles barkley is one of the like 10 best players to ever play but you know he didn't get one because of jordan or something it's like this guy's championships this guy's championships, this guy's championships. And with quarterback, it's this guy can either win a championship or he can't win a championship. Like nuance gets completely lost or it's fire this guy. The only two things you'll hear for the most part on those shows are anoint this guy's the next champion or this guy needs to be fired. And that's the, that's all sports.

And I think that the reason why this show does so well is first of all, shout out to Vikings fans for supporting me all the way since 2020. But I think the reason it does well is it's not that it's like, this is what we're trying. We're trying to peel back all the layers of every part of the team down to the right guard and his performance against Jeffrey Simmons. And so, so I do feel like my audience in particular likes to get into those weeds. Um, but the world at large does not, it seems to be either all in or all out and you don't have to choose one. I think at this point you could say it's been an amazing season. It's been an incredible coaching job. It's been a great, great quarterback season by Sam Darnold overall. And now the true test is about to come, which leads us to Manny picking the schedule. This segment's getting a little shorter with only seven games remaining now.

So this Sunday, Courtney Cronin, Chicago bears at soldier field. I will be there. One of the least enjoyable press boxes in the league to tell you the truth. I hear they want to build a new stadium and i very much support it when they do uh i don't think the vikings particularly for their history love playing there but will they win against the chicago bears and go to nine and two well i just said a little

bit ago that the bears played a little bit better against green Bay and almost found a way to pull that game out, if not for the blocked field goal at the end. So I think that might be a little bit of a sign that this game is going to be tougher than maybe I thought a week ago. But I still think the Bears are just a team that overall is in some trouble. I don't know. I don't have a high opinion about Matt Eberflus' future there. It just seems like a change is probably going to be needed. So I will put this down as a win for the Vikings, just because I think the Vikings have kind of found a little bit more confidence now after winning these last three games. They haven't looked great, but they've found a way to get through that dull stage of the season. Now it ramps up a little bit with a divisional opponent.

I think the Vikings will be ready to play at Soldier Field on Sunday and they'll come away with a win. Gifting is hard, but here's a hint. Give the gift of connection from U.S. Cellular. Not sure what that means? Here's a slightly more specific hint. You can choose four free phones and get four lines for $90 a month from U.S. Cellular. Your family wants new phones. How do we know? They told us. The good news is that compared to wrapping presents, you are great at getting hints. So take a hint and get them four free phones and four lines for $90 a month. U S cellular built for us. On the show this week, Courtney later this week and Robert Mace from the athletic,

who is a lifelong Chicago bears guy and has been riding that wave. And I am really interested to hear what they have to say because the bears against the Vikings, they have this opportunity to try to win for their coach and last week that may be what they were trying to do i don't know that they were but to try to give one last push and i think that they got the we just fired a coach jump which happened in new orleans as well seems to happen around the league you fire a coach the next game you play pretty well but then it doesn doesn't always last. I just can see Caleb Williams being an absolute

hell against this Vikings defense. It feels really hard for somebody who holds onto the ball so long and struggles to diagnose things to handle what Brian Flores is about to pull at, uh, throw at him. So nine and two, it is then Arizona at home, December 1st, Manny, if we considered this, I don't know that we've talked about this enough when it comes to buying into the Vikings and all that sort of stuff, the Vikings went to London and played. Okay. So let's even go farther back. We've got time. They played San Francisco and Houston at home. Then they go to green Bay to London to play the jets. They get a home game against Detroit. Then it's at Los Angeles, a home game, and then three more away games before

finally returning home. They have barely been at us bank stadium. They're eight and two without almost ever being at us bank stadium. So now we into this december and they're going to be there four times in this month starting with arizona december 1st do they win that football game and go to 10 and 2 oh wow that yeah i'm looking at the schedule too that's two true home games in the span of like basically two two basically two months. Right. That's insane. I mean, since September 22nd,

the next home game that they had after that was October 20th. That was an entire month. And then they had one November 3rd and won't have another one until December 1st. So two different times they've had a whole month without playing at U.S. Bank Stadium. It's a wild,

wild, wild schedule. And they're eight and two. And they're eight and two. It's crazy. Yeah. Another thing to think about when you think about this team being eight and two,

just how crazy and the schedule has been. Are they going to win? Are they going to win? Yeah. They they gonna beat arizona focus shut off your phone let's focus yeah i don't know why i got a phone call there um are they gonna beat arizona uh yes i will say yes this time 10 and 2 and another five game winning streak atlanta at home we need to pause we need to pause because we need to talk about yesterday in Atlanta. If you're not happy right now with the Vikings, I'd all I want you to do. So I want you to put on, put on your glasses.

I still got these here from the off season when Jefferson signed. I want you to put them on because you're going to need something this protective to look at what's happening in Atlanta. They have a six and five record with a negative 30 point differential and they just got boat raced by bo nicks that could have been you yeah okay that's all i gotta say so i gotta say that could have been it would have been it would have been you it would have been six and five and it would have been minus 30 and they wouldn't have had Grenard and Van Ginkle.

And we would have been going, if only they could have drafted a left outside linebacker could have been you. Yeah. And it's not. So, so, so I'm going to, I'm going to make a little amendment. I'm going to put down the Cardinals game as a loss. And switch the Falcons to a win. And I'm going to put this game down as a win. Yeah, because I'm looking at those two games,

and I'm thinking they're probably going to split those two. And to me, it seems more likely that the Cardinals, who are playing a lot better and playing with some confidence, will come into US Bank Stadium and win a game. And then the Vikings will make Kirk Cousins look pretty bad on December 8th. Atlanta, I just, that, this is kind of, that's the Kirk Cousins experience, right?

That's what the Falcons are getting down there. That's what Atlanta fans are getting down there, man. That was awful yesterday you know what i felt like right there i felt like the ghost of christmas present or whatever like this coming in like oh it could have been you you could have had a negative point differential but instead your gm had a. Maybe he's not so stupid. Minus 30 point differential is just too bleeping good, right? Of course, they win a stupid game against Philly where Philly forgets to play defense at the end,

and they win that one, and they get to a winning record, and people are like, you know, maybe Atlanta is pretty good. And then of course they go into a big game. Oh, we're going to play a tough defense, a tough defense destroyed cousins and his I'm shocked. I can't believe that that's what happened. It's just what's going on there. It could have been you and it's not because your leadership had a plan anyway. So I, so i i think that's right though because they're going to have all these road games and probably be a little gas at the end of it you could see kyler murray his weapons the receivers i think tough i think good receivers are tough for

this team so that puts them uh where does that put them i'm uh a little flustered now after all that uh that would put them at uh 10 10 and 3 10 and 3 yeah 10 and 3 okay uh then monday night football against the bears on december 16th i'm looking forward to that one what happens there one more dig at the atlanta falcons defense they made bone next look like he was playing Liberty in the Fiesta Bowl at Oregon again. Okay. Anyway, let me just, let's just go all in. Let's just go all in. Here's what I want to know from the draft analysts.

How is Spencer Rattler better than Bo Nix? Because I heard that in the draft season. I heard Spencer Rattler, he's like a second round pick. But Bo Nix, he's just too old or something. He's not any good. He goes with Sean Payton and he's winning games and he looks pretty good. And just Spencer Rattler, huh? I just want to know.

I just want to know. I want to know when the Lions are going to pick Malik Willis, number two overall, too. But that's, you know, those are questions I have. So they're going to play Chicago. That was a mock. i saw that mock so uh anyway chicago december so this has gone off the freaking rails now at this point but remember remember there were real people who wanted cousins to come back here real people for this year who

could not believe that another quarterback could throw the football to Justin Jefferson. Just couldn't believe how who's going to play quarterback. It's not Kirk. Who is it going to be? Can't be anybody. No one could ever huck a pigskin to the best receiver on earth over and over. He's the only one for 45 million. Hey, you know what Kirk needs in Atlanta? Andrew Van Ginkle, Jonathan Grenard, Blake Cashman, and Stephon Gilmore. You know why he doesn't have them? $45 million a year. The same salary as Patrick Mahomes.

That's why. Now we can continue. The 10-3 Vikings take on the Chicago Bears. And Manny just logs off. No, okay. Come back, Manny. Come back. I don't know the timing was impeccable though that was it was just a glitch but the timing was tremendous it just went bloop and you left that was awesome um uh they're gonna they're gonna complete the

sweep of the bears and move to 11 and 3 okay so that's what i've got 11 and 3 after they lost the rams game you didn't have them at 11 and 3 at this point i'm just saying manny uh this is why we do it each week because there's a different answer each week out to seattle december 22nd shout out shout out new york jets gino smith's played great yesterday. Sam Darnold's playing great this year. I can't wait to see what team Zach Wilson emerges and plays great for next year. They were talking about him in Denver. You know, he's actually looking really good out here as the backup. So Gino Smith versus Sam Darnold.

The dap before that game, when those two guys, when they meet, meet they're gonna just look in each other's eyes and be like i know and you know but who wins it kind of reminds me of a picture i saw of jared god it was the year the vikings played the rams here in 2017 it was jared goff and case keenum embracing and somebody put put the picture and the quote and said, it was like them saying, don't worry, Jeff Fisher can't hurt us anymore. Which I thought was pretty good. It's kind of like Sam Darnold and Geno Smith embracing after this game and saying, don't worry, the New York Jets can't hurt us anymore.

With that said, though, I continue to kind of have this down as a loss for the vikings just because it's it's a road game it's you know the seahawks are not a great team and you can really move the ball in that defense i think but i just at some point i don't see this team going 14 and 3 talking about the vikings so i feel like at some point they're going to have a loss in here. That's probably against an inferior team. Like, like this could maybe be a little bit of a letdown game, maybe with the way Seattle's kind of sort of an up and down team. You don't really know which, which version of them you're going to get on a week to week basis. It's on the road. That's always a tough crowd. I put this down as a loss to the Seahawks on December 22nd.

It also has to be factored here that they're playing a division opponent on Monday night, short week out to one of the hardest places in the NFL to play. This one is one where the gambling world, I'm sure, will be saying, go with the Seahawks. That's a really tough road to hoe for them. And then come back home against the Green Bay Packers. And this game right here, Manny, I believe will be the game. So we're now talking 11-4 after that loss. With two games to go, I believe this will be the game

for how much people believe in the Minnesota Vikings. And here's why I think that. 2019, the Vikings are a good team. They had a plus hundred something point differential. You remember all the details of 2019. They won a lot of games against some mid mediocre type of teams and they lost some big games and they had a chance at the end of that season to beat the

Packers and maybe take the entire division. They got killed by the Packers and going into the playoffs, Mike Zimmer almost lost his job. Had they lost to the saints? No one believed that they were going to beat the saints going into that game because they had lost that game to the Packers and the whole universe sort of deflated about that team that had kind of gotten a little excited about it at that point because they'd won a bunch of games and then it was just oh they're not gonna and the same exact thing happened in 2022 at now it was at green bay but they went there they gave up like a kick return for touchdown or something and it just the wheels off. Nobody wore the right shoes that day.

It was really stupid, but they similarly had had a really entertaining season and we're kind of trying to make this, are we actually a good team argument? And that was the game that determined how everyone felt about them going into the playoffs. And I remember having a conversation in the press box with our friend, Patrick Royce, who was at the game in 2022. And I was like, Pat, you think they're going to win? And he's like, ah, they're not, they're going to lose to the giants today. And I was like, man, that's tough. Like the giants aren't that good. Uh, but I think it was because, uh, that's not my best Royce. You've heard much better Royce's for me, but that's, I think that after they lost that Packers game,

just nobody thought that they were going to do it. So this game here, this is how much is riding on your shoulders as the picker of the schedule, December 29th, week 17 to the Vikings go to 12 and four or 11 and five. That 2019 game, by the way, at US Bank Stadium, I think the Vikings had 139 yards of offense that night. Was that the game that Zedaria Smith just like went off? Yes.

And was just like a one-man wrecking crew against the Vikings offense? Yeah, that was a bad night. I was very angry that night. Okay, so Green Bay, December 29th. I think, yeah, that's going to be a fun one. I think that the Vikings will complete this week. I got the Vikings sweeping the Packers and the Bears this year. That's pretty, it's pretty fascinating.

So I've got the Vikings winning this game and improving to 12 and four and maybe getting themselves in a position to maybe fight with Detroit for the division, depending on the lines. Might be like 13-3 or something then. Who knows? I don't know. Could be. But that week 18, that will make that week 18 game very interesting because I do think the Vikings will be playing for something going into that game.

Maybe just seeding, depending on what happens with Philadelphia or Washington, maybe they're kind of still in that mix for that five seed or something. But yeah, I've got the Vikings beating the Packers on December 29th. Okay. So then, uh, out to Detroit and if they do that, then I think people will be all in if they beat the Packers, no matter what happens on the final week of the season, I think they will be very much in, uh, on this Vikings team going into the playoffs if they beat the Packers, because that just means something different to everybody here.

So the final game of the season, is this a 13-win season for you, or is it a 12-win season for you? I'll call it a 12-win season. I think the Lions will take care of business, so to speak, and Dan Campbell's going to play all his guys. We've been talking about that for a few weeks. That's what he does. Even if it's a game that, you know, if they've got everything locked up or if it's a game that doesn't matter, he's going to play all his guys. And he's probably going to do that for week 18 too. And I think the Vikings will come up short. The Lions will go into

the playoffs with that number one seed and the Vikings will have to settle with 12 and five, but they'll be, they'll be feeling pretty good. It would be a great season for them. Uh, that would mean four and three down the stretch against a lot of pretty good teams and put them in a great position going into the playoffs. That position, as we speak, you understand would be Vikings and Atlanta Falcons in Atlanta. As of this moment I, I'm not convinced that Atlanta is going to make it because if Kirk fades and remember, this is a guy coming off a catastrophic injury. What is their schedule? I'm going to look at their schedule because Tampa Bay, even without their receivers could still do it. Tampa Bay has a better point

differential than the Falcons right now. I haven't looked at who they played. Let's see. They play Los Angeles. They could lose that game. Oh, no, they're making it. They're making it. They play Los Angeles and Minnesota, but the final four games for the Falcons are

Vegas Giants at Washington Carolina. So that's, they can, well, if they go three and three, then the Bucs would have to get pretty hot. I don't know. I feel like we're on a collision course here. If the Packers pass the Vikings, if there is somewhat of a fade here for the Vikings, then they would play against the three seed.

But I think you want to play Atlanta. I think you want to go there. I don't think it's the most intimidating place in the Vikings. Then they would play against the three seed. But I think you want to play Atlanta. I think you want to go there. It's, I don't think it's the most intimidating place in the world. You want to play a team with no defense. You want to play Kirk when you're Brian Flores. Oh, wow. Boy, you can't write that one up any better. Yeah. It just looks like they are on a collision course because I don't know how. I mean, if there's anyone who could lose to the Giants or something, it might be Kirk because there's always that big disappointing loss. But even three and three might get them there, considering Tampa Bay is in a tough spot. Let me look who Tampa Bay's got left.

I've got their schedule up now. They're sitting pretty good their next three games. They're at the Giants, at the Panthers, then they're home against Vegas. Those are probably all three. Those are certainly three winnable games. Then they're at the Chargers. Chargers are kind of, I mean, the Chargers are 7-3. Yeah.

And I don't even know how. You know, I mean, Jim Harbaugh can coach. There's no doubt about that. But, like, they won that game. I mean, they blew a three-baugh can coach. There's no doubt about that, but like they won that game. They don't, I mean, they, they blew up three touchdown lead against the Bengals last night,

but they found a way to win that game. And I just looked, I was like, Oh my God, the chargers are seven and three. What? So that might be a tough game. Then they're at Dallas.

I mean, that's probably a win. The Cowboys are a mess. Then they're home against Carolina home against the saints, two bad teams. Yeah. So the Buccaneers Buccaneers are four and six, but they're only like really tough, potentially tough game. The rest of the way for them is at the Chargers on December 15th. The rest of the rest of those games are very winnable for them. Yeah. Just running through that real quick again at New York, at Carolina, Vegas, Chargers, Dallas, Carolina again, and then New Orleans.

I mean, the Bucs could do this, man. They could actually come back if Kirk missed the playoffs on the last day. Just that man is living in a simulation. I would actually feel bad for him at that point because he's living in a simulation. He's just had the same season over and over and over again with a couple of different permutations Sort of what is that? There's a sci-fi movie like that, right or uh into the into the kirky verse If you've seen the spider-man into the multiverse and there's like a bunch of different spider-mans

And they basically live the same life But in different universes like this is kirk into the kirkiverse is just another six and five season where there's a team behind them and they're like no they'll be in the playoffs or whatever but the other team has an easy schedule and it comes down to the final week oh boy you know that you know that uh that tom brady fox commercial where he's like talking to all the different versions of himself it's like the buccaneers version the patriots version the michigan version i can you imagine that with like Kirk, where he's talking to like, he's just walking and he's talking to like the Washington version, then the Michigan State

version, then the Vikings version, then the Falcons version is talking to him. And they all have like kind of the same story of like, yeah, we came, got to a big game and it just didn't work out. And you know, do you like that kirk they don't believe in you you know all that stuff it'd be pretty funny oh the uh the the 2016 kirk i talked to somebody who was uh in a front office in the 2016 when he was uh or actually it was 2017 when he was going to be a free agent and they were talking about the end of that 2016 season. And they said their team didn't make a bid for him because the final game of the season of 2016, he went to New York with Washington and New York was awful

as they always are. And all they had to do was just beat New York. And then they get into the playoffs and he has a great season, everything else just came up short. And here we are again with that team is going to be racing right down the stretch. They in the hunt graphic, the one game ahead, the back and forth or whatever. It's, it's really exactly what all of us would have expected, but it does seem like every season is the same exact thing. And that ties back into our initial discussion where I have felt like the Vikings

fan base got very cynical and frustrated by these mid seasons over and over again. And when you don't blow out the Titans, like you're supposed to, I think there's this, maybe it's just the trauma of the mid seasons popping back in. Oh no. Are we mid? Are we mid again? And not by the numbers, not by the numbers that they may end up being that way, but not by the numbers. Let's let's talk about a little bit. We can get more into this on Thursday as we preview the game. But I remember in 2022, when Kweisi Daffel-Mensah got hired the day he got hired,

I wrote an article about how the Bears and the Vikings were starting at this, like a track meet of rebuilds. One was going to take a slower approach where they run a little slower and then they try to shoot right past. And the Vikings were going to say, no, we're going to run as fast as we can. And if we peter out, then we fall apart and we're going to try to find our wind

at the end. And the bears by their situation of drafting Caleb Williams and where their roster is should look pretty good, but their coach seems to be a disaster and they hired the wrong offensive coordinator and the Vikings are sitting here with KOC. You saw the graphic on Sunday. I want to hear your thought on that. Of the 2022 head coaches that were hired, KOC is demolishing every single one of them. It is fascinating because I think there's still an argument that Chicago could be better in the long run, but the Vikings not tanking, taking the road kind of less traveled these days in sports, still getting their future quarterback and still setting up all their cap space and creating a culture that all the players believe in and want to be a part of.

I think there's at this moment, a very clear winner of this contest. And the only thing that could change that is if Caleb Williams becomes an elite quarterback. Yeah. You know, I was just looking at those, uh, 10 head coaches that were hired in 2022. And like you mentioned, KOC has got the best record out of all of them. Uh, he's 28 and 16 now if i'm not mistaken if my math does me right um and i think he's like four and a half or five games clear of mike mcdaniel who's the next next guy down who's done a pretty good job overall with the dolphins they've had kind of a downer this year because two got hurt but um yeah and then you just look down at the rest of the list and it is, you're just in hindsight, it's like, wow, whoops for some of those teams. Um, and you know, you, you maybe throw the Chicago bears into that conversation too, about just like,

you look at where they're at and they're the sort of the, the lack of real continuity with, you know, you bring in Iberflus with a question mark about Justin Fields, and then you move on from Justin Fields and you, you know, there's question marks about Matt Iberflus, and then you bring in Caleb Williams and now like, okay, Matt Iberflus, should he keep his job? Maybe not. Is he going to keep his job? Probably not. And now you're kind of going into 2025 with a new head what a team is going to be in the future, I think you have to talk about stability as well. And when you are constantly changing coaches, you know, sometimes when you make that coaching change, it's the right thing to do. But when you don't have that consistent stability,

like what it appears the Vikings have right now with KOC and Kweisi, you're just going to be treading water. And it's going to be always a challenge for you to get things back on track. And, you know, the Bears have some pieces. They have the young quarterback that they believe in. They've got the weapons around him. But for some reason, it's just not really clicking yet and it's maybe one of those things where if they move on from Ibraflues you bring in the next guy you almost just have to like ride it out with that guy for more than two years because Caleb Williams is going to need some stability and if you keep changing coaches because he's not progressing right because you're changing schemes every year it's not going to work out and you're just going to you're just going to ruin him and you know we

kind of saw that a little bit with sam darnell where with with the jets where you know at first it was todd bowles to start out and then they brought in adam gaze and that was just a disaster you know you have to have some stability with these young quarterbacks in order to to really build your future. And if the Bears don't find that, then Caleb Williams, no matter how talented he is, it's just not going to work out for him. You know, what's weird about the Bears also is if you told me that a team that drafted number one overall, and I understand it was not their draft pick, but let's just say number

one overall, and they were a plus seven point differential four and six at this point and they had struggled on the road especially and they had a game where they should have won but they lost on a hail mary i would have said well that sounds like it's going okay i mean for a team that drafted number one and tanked a couple of years ago, but it really all comes back to the guy in charge. When the Detroit Lions were one in six, there's stories out there about how the players still thought Dan Campbell was the man and he was the right guy to lead them and that they could still turn around and still be good. And they get to nine and eight that season and miss the playoffs but we all knew what was coming with that team with the talent that they had with the leadership

that they had with the play caller that they had when you look at iber flus and then compare him to a matt lafleur who's battled through some things this year to kevin o'connell to some of the better coaches in the league who always mike tomlin my gosh that man unreal just always there right always doing it always finding a way and oh should pittsburgh apologize for their win it wasn't pretty enough i know it's a better win than it was for the vikings but uh you should you don't have to apologize for that one the point being that some of these coaches they just know how to lead. They know how to operate an organization.

They know how to organize their players. And when they lost on that Hail Mary and all the players came out and just trashed Eberfuss, you knew, okay, behind the scenes, this is not good. And they need a change now. But who are they going to change to? Is it going to be Ben Johnson, which could be really good for them or not? If he doesn't know what he's doing, Brian Callahan for Tennessee is a good offensive coach. That guy seems lost at the plate. As far as being a head coach, Josh McDaniels was a great offensive

coach. Great in new England. They, he was the offensive coach when they got to the playoffs with Mac Jones. Then, then he goes to be a head coach again. Total disaster. The Vikings. Boy, they, I mean, they just nailed it with KOC. And that's why, you know, the extension talk, if they have the season that you're lining up for him, that he's going to be able to write a blank check for a long-term extension. You just don't let these guys go and you keep riding it out. I saw some idiotic discussion on Twitter about Kyle Shanahan today. Are you kidding me?

I would take Kyle Shanahan as the head coach of any team, anytime, anywhere. You don't let that, you don't let idiots online pressure you into thinking these coaches aren't great just because they're not perfect. Where that's the same thing with O'Connell, but Tomlin, I've seen Pittsburgh people, well, you know, the games passed him by last year or something. How about a quarterback that could even throw the ball anywhere that he has now with Russell Wilson? Or Tomlin's lost, he's putting in Justin Fields,

or he's taking out Justin Fields. Well, then Wilson outplays him. Anyway, the point just being that there's no guarantee that you hire the the right guy next and they hired adam gaze in new york and that wasn't good they gave sam darnold matt freaking rule uh in carolina and that's working out great at nebraska if anybody watched that game and they ran the clock out on themselves at the end of the game on saturday that was interesting to watch but but you know,

what they're going to give Caleb Williams next is very unclear and it's chaos. As you said, when you force, think about the difference between what McCarthy's going to take over potentially and what Caleb Williams is going to get. McCarthy is going to have this whole bedrock of experience watching an NFL pro handle the ups and downs of a season and all the things people have said about him and the struggles, the adjustments and everything else, the physical exertion of Sam Darnold. And he's learned all the language and all the footwork and communicates with his coach and watches the tape of real games now. And he's seeing them where Caleb Williams goes in there. He plays in a bad system, screws around for the whole year. And it's, it's wasted in a lot of ways. And then he's

got to learn somebody else's crap. Like they, you get, you start to learn, you start to learn Spanish and then they say, you know what actually stop French. That's gotta be so hard on a quarterback. And the real thing that it comes down to, and this is where I would go, but you know how people do that. If I could go back and tell my younger self, tell you what, what I would tell younger reporter analyst me is you think that culture is just some dopey thing that Jimmy Johnson yells on TV. But when you really understand it, you see the impact of it. And these two franchises, you see the impact of it. KOC and Kweisi versus Ibraflucent Poles. Ibraflucent Poles may have had the better plan

to tank, but the smarter run organization is leading right now. Doesn't mean it'll happen forever, but it's leading right now. Stability, man. I mean, just going, going back to this, these 10 coaches. So I'm going to read off these, these coaches, right? All, all 10 coaches that were hired in 2022. And for the listeners and viewers that your jaw is going to drop at some of these names. All right. Now I'm ready. All right. Now I'm ready uh so i'm gonna go through some of these names all right todd bowles okay all right going all right josh m. He's hired in 2022. Just got fired. Okay. Who's the next guy?

Oh, here's one for you. Nathaniel Hackett. Remember that guy when he was a head coach? How'd that go? Yeah, not great. Fired. Mike McDaniel. All right.

Going all right for the Dolphins. Kevin O'Connell. Yeah. We just hyped him up great brian dable who was coach of the year in 2022 probably not going to be a head coach of the new york giants after this season uh doug peterson oh how's that going in jacksonville how was that game yesterday jaguars fans there you go uh Matt Eberflus we just talked about him and oh 10th guy Lovey Smith with the Houston Texans I have no recollection of Lovey Smith oh no I do I do you know why because Lovey Smith he played for a win to be like, screw you Texans.

I know I'm getting fired. Davis Mills throws a touchdown at the end of a completely meaningless game. Well, the bears were tanking. Was it maybe it was at the same day where the bears were tanking on purpose. And yes, it was. And then you end up with the Texans drafting not first, but second and taking CJ Stroud. And well, let's see, how are they doing tonight?

Are they winning? They're still a good team. They'll be all right. Yeah, they're winning. They're still a good team. They're not a great team because their line stinks and the receivers are hurt. And even Will Anderson is out, but they're a good team.

And they'll be good for a long time with Stroud. That's funny. I had no recollection of him being hired, though. He had the beard, right? He still came back with a beard? The Santa Claus beard, yeah. So that's 10 head coaches hired in 2022, four of whom have already been fired,

and three more will probably be fired after this season. That's crazy. That's crazy. That's just the odds, though. Every coaching cycle, it's almost like drafting a quarterback, drafting a franchise quarterback, what are the odds that you hire a coach? And this is why, this is why we get as bad as the 2022 draft is and got worse actually on Sunday when they benched at Ingram. This is how sometimes I'm like, I get it, but let's look at the forest

through the trees here. Kweisi Adafo-Menta hiring Kevin O'Connell. You had the same odds of drafting a franchise quarterback there where there's so many bust coaches who are in over their heads, totally lost, clueless, don't know how to treat people. I mean, I think that the guy for the Titans, I'm like, may God be with you guys, because that's not going to go well with that coach probably. And they can't even stop a kick return or whatever. They're just a mess. So many of these coaches that get hired have no idea how to do the job. It's an impossible job. You have to manage so much all at once, all the time and every single personality in person on your roster. And somehow Kevin O'Connell is able to do this, communicate with people and

somehow even found time on a Friday, a couple of weeks ago to sit down with me for a story. This guy seems to always have time for everybody communicates with everybody understands what everybody's thinking all at once and what they need even sam darnold and this is the important point tying all the way back to the very beginning of the show when i talked about how important it was for darnold to bounce back kevin o'connell went to darnold this week and he said let's focus on the things you did well to start the season. Let's get back to them. We're going to design the game plan and the routes and everything for the things you did really well. And let's get your mindset right. And all those things. And it's like the bears

don't even have an office of coordinator. I mean, it's just, it's just remarkable. So like you said about Doug Peterson last last week they lose and he tells the media you guys wouldn't even understand what happened out there and then gets freaking destroyed by 50 points i mean there's a lot of clown shows out there folks and uh you don't have one i don't have one here you know i will never never gonna root for anybody to get fired for any coach to get fired but i woke up this morning and doug peterson still had a job and i was actually astonished i could not when i was watching the lions just bludgeon them yesterday i was like oh this is it doug peterson's done like

this they're going into a bye week they're getting blown out they're gonna drop to two and nine this makes all the sense in the world. They're going to make a coaching change to make it now to kind of give that guy, whoever it is. I think Mike McCoy is on that staff. He's the only guy with head coaching experience maybe. So maybe he would be the interim coach. I don't know. I don't know who it would be.

It doesn't really matter. But I'm thinking, this has got to be it for Doug Peterson. How does that happen? You drop to two and nine. You're going into a bye week. So you'd be giving the interim coach some time to really kind of get things going. I was really surprised by that. And that's just the lesson.

That's just the lesson here is about the Vikings and why maybe I'm looking at the bigger picture and not so much. Well, they didn't run the ball yesterday, so they're screwed for the Super Bowl. But looking at it more through the lens of let's let's think about what they've kind of overcome here to be in this situation. The decisions that went right to be eight and two, and the coaching that they have that has taken them this far. And that's what a lot of this has come down to. You look at Sam Darnold before he got here, he was what, 15 games under 500 as a starter. He had a 78 quarterback rating. I don't know that he ever graded by PFF over 70 for a season. I don't think so. And now he's the 12th highest graded quarterback, top 10 in quarterback rating, and has eight wins in 10 games and eight games of over a hundred

quarterback rating. And I think it's also DVOA. He has all but three games on the positive side of that, like all those things. And there's, I mean, you could go back to the weapons, but a lot, some of them have been acquired. They've had to acquire Addison. They had to acquire TJ Hawkinson. They had to acquire Aaron Jones and, you know, save kind of saved the season with Cam Robinson and the trade that was made there. A lot of things have gone right for them to be here. A lot of good decisions have been made for them to be here. And that's why I can't get in a position where I'm going to say, well, you didn't win this last game by enough. So now I I'm just not going to believe in you where we're really going to be tested is the, and, and the thought that they're good. Our opinion that is good, that they're good

will be tested in the coming weeks. Going to Chicago is difficult. Playing Arizona is difficult playing Atlanta. And we're talking about Kirk and everything, but that's still a will be tested in the coming weeks. Going to Chicago is difficult. Playing Arizona is difficult. Playing Atlanta. And we're talking about Kirk and everything, but that's still a team with a lot of weapons and a quarterback who can deliver the ball to those weapons under the right circumstances. And I do think that there's going to be more tests than have happened the last few weeks as we go forward,

which is why this is fun. So anyway, that's just kind of tying it all back into the bigger picture. I heard a story yesterday and I wanted to tell someone because my wife doesn't care about things that I tell her. So I need to tell you, Manny. My friend, Andrew Mason, who covers the Broncos, he was talking about when Peyton Manning went back to Indianapolis and right before kickoff, they played this super emotional tribute video for Peyton Manning. They showed him winning the Super Bowl and carrying his kids or whatever, all these things

right before kickoff. And the stadium goes crazy. Yay, Peyton Manning, good job for you. You're back with the broncos and manning admitted after the game that it threw him off a little bit so what i'd like to see vikings entertainment do is his his come up with the most thank you kirk video right before that first snap play it on the big board. Thank you, Kirk. The whole Kirko chains, having his shirt off, doing the skull chain, all those things.

See if you can get in his head a little bit, maybe, maybe some psychological warfare for that. Maybe include that little clip of him, him and Mike Zimmer kind of pushing each other after what, what game was that? I can't remember what game was that. I was at 2021. 2021 Detroit. And game was that. Was that 2021? 2021 Detroit.

And Detroit was bad. And they barely pulled out the long field goal to win it. Yet they carried Greg Joseph off the field. You talk about unimpressive wins, folks. You got to talk about unimpressive wins. I got some unimpressive wins in the bank for you. If you want to talk about unimpressive wins, you're losing to Washington that's still run by Dan Snyder

and Taylor Heineke's their quarterback. And the only way you win is he throws the dumbest pass I've ever seen in my life. I don't know. There's been less impressive wins. You had to strip Amir Smith-Marset on the final drive to beat the Bears in 22. I don't know there's there's worse ways to win than by 10 points and not ever really fear the other team would come back anyway i i don't know did i drink too much diet dr pepper uh tonight i feel like i was jacked up

well i mean but but to your point like that that's why this season has just been fun. Because it's – because they're 8-2 and they're not just, like, bludgeoning everybody. You know what I mean? It does kind of give us something to talk about where it gives us, you know, some questions to ask. Like, can they turn the running game around? Can the defense, you know, kind of continue to hold up? You know, some of the plays we saw Tennessee make yesterday, some of the big plays, you know, we haven't really seen the defense give up a lot of that stuff.

Can they clean some of that stuff up over the next couple of weeks? So I'm just, like I keep saying, I'm just fascinated to see how this plays out. I'm glad that they're playing this well and that they're interesting could you imagine if this team was like three and or well they played 10 games could you imagine if they were like four and six right now this would be again that's what I thought we'd be dealing with yeah I mean that's that's like it I think it just comes down to perspective man that yeah we can we can be a little bit concerned about you know the running game the last couple of weeks and, and, you know, guys staying healthy and, and, you know, can Sam Darnold limit the turnovers?

We can talk about all that stuff and be concerned about all of that, but like, let's just keep everything in perspective and enjoy this. Talk about this with some, with some rationale and and uh it'll be good it'll be fun we are talking to a broken people so sometimes uh we got to keep that in mind as well well good stuff uh manny and on thursday night here's the homework assignment instead i don't need you to do when it's the division we don't do the favorite bears that just feels weird how about though favorite vikings versus bears football games that you have witnessed and there has been a lot to witness there oh yeah the other

angle maybe i'll do an alternative angle and put on the glasses again and do the calamities my favorite calamity bears versus vikings games we'll we'll do that uh so thanks for your time as always and we will see you on thursday night got it football football