Purple Insider - a Minnesota Vikings and NFL podcast - Should the Vikings blitz more?

Episode Date: November 29, 2022

Former Viking Jeremiah Sirles is skeptical that the Vikings' defense is doing it wrong but he wonders why Harrison Smith isn't used as a Blitzer more often. Sirles explains why the Patriots win was meaningful for the Vikings and what made their special teams unit special.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Purple Insider is presented by Liquid Death, delicious water that's bringing death to plastic. Learn more at liquiddeath.com slash insider. Hello, welcome to another episode of Purple Insider. It is a Tuesday morning Left Guard with Jeremiah Searles. Jeremiah, we wake up with the Packers in flames. Detroit can't figure out how to manage a football game. Chicago's playing Trevor Simeon and the Vikings, well, they're not exactly chasing down the Philadelphia Eagles because the Eagles got a win

and Vikings fans were forced to root for the Packers for a night. But overall, just flying high here after a win over the New England Patriots. Give me your feelings. How do you feel right now about the Minnesota Vikings? I feel much better than I did last week. That's for sure. You know, we talked about on the pod last week about how this team was going to react to losing and how this team is going to react to getting it handed to them, essentially.

And I thought they came out and handled everything extremely well. Now, New England isn't what I would call a world beater, but they're a very competent football team, you know, and I thought that everyone came out and was able to shake the rust off off of a short week and fix some of the correctable things. And everybody from offense, defense, special teams, I feel like elevated their game and played at a much higher level than they did the week before. If you want to play, what does that stat mean right away?

Of course you do. What does that stat mean? Okay, so the average depth of target in that game was only 5.7 yards, which the lowest in the NFL for the season is 6.2. And that's Matt Ryan. And I'm impressed because what Kevin O'Connell did was he seemed to dial up the Kyle Shanahan world of let's limit the damage that my quarterback can do. And Kirk Cousins still had several turnover worthy plays and talked about after the game, like kind of regretting some of those plays that there were two throws that

maybe could have turned into pick sixes for him on short passes. So it's not always the thing that can prevent you from making mistakes, but it is a thing that can prevent you from getting sacked seven times. So what did you make of the way that O'Connell adapted his game plan in such a short period of time to go up against the defense that rushes the passer really really well I loved it I loved it I think I text you in the first half I was like O'Connell must listen to our podcast he must he must listen to our galaxy brain how to fix the offense um Tuesday left guard. But no, I mean, I

think it shows who he is as a head coach, right? He heard Jefferson's comments or maybe they had spoke beforehand about, hey, this is what we're going to do moving forward. And then he was able to stick with it and implement it. And like I said, it's not brand new to them. They had been practicing it, but to execute it on a short week like that, you could tell it really frustrated the Patriots defense. Right. You could tell when they weren't getting home, those defenders were getting a little frustrated and they were getting a little like, man, why am I even rushing? And then all of a sudden, when there was a chance, they were kind of like, oh, but short pass. Oh, shoot. Seven step drop. And then we were able to catch him off guard. Right.

So I love the game plan. I love the ability to just get it into your playmakers hands, let them do things. Thielen had a few big catches. He was able to spread it back around. And I think that a big reason why the quick passing game is going to continue to work is because of TJ Hawkinson. I think he brings such an over-the-middle presence that you have to respect the tight end short passing game now, which will only continue to expand the down-the-field throws with Jefferson and all those things.

But I loved how quickly we were able to turn things around. And guess what? Now that just gives defenses as we move forward an entire thing that they have to continue to work on during the week. Now it's not just the downfield stretches. It's also the quick passing game. Now, if we can just figure out how to get this run game going and we'll be fine on all cylinders as we head down the back stretch of the season here. It's amazing how one game can change the feeling in four days. But I think that going into the New England game, I mean, it was very, very legit to say

if they fall apart in this one, too, then you got some serious problems. If you fix it, then it really says something about how your coach is just figuring things out as he goes along, because Kevin O'Connell is doing this for the first time. And he was part of a staff last year that kind of had to snap the Rams out of it. If you remember, they lost three games in a row. They got their tails whooped in one of them, I think against San Francisco, and they had to turn it around down the stretch to get into the playoffs and go into the playoffs with some momentum. And now when you look at the Vikings situation, they do face a very good defense with the

Jets, which we'll get to. But at the same time, I mean, you just have a ton of confidence in their ability from a week to week to start adapting. And they also may have found what works for them here, even if it's half the season, to really understand this is what you have to do can't just let ingram try to walk for three and a half seconds it's not going to work and it was almost like losing christian derisaw forced them to do the thing that they really should have been doing all along yeah i think you nailed it when you don't have stud left tackle there you protect

your back and that kind of helped everybody else. You know, now I really hope we can get him back next week because, like you said, the Jets have a very salty defensive front. You know, but I thought Brando came in. It was a simple spot start. You don't expect a ton more out of a guy like that, speaking from a spot starter myself. You know, overall, what Kevin O'Connell did in a four-day span i earned a ton

of respect for him you know i i like how do we handle this in four days i would have loved to be a fly on the wall in those meetings and see how he did handle that but from what it sounds like listening to player interviews they all kind of just banded together and were able to say hey corrections flush it move on which is what you have to do as a head coach. And so earned a ton of respect for him. But now each week gets more important. Every game from here on out is the biggest game. And now is when it's really like nut cutting time. Everyone starts to get a little tighter.

How you handle winning now will be critical as we go down the stretch because a lot of people on this team have been in these situations before, but you have a lot of young guys that haven have been in these situations before, but you have a lot of young guys that haven't been in these situations before of how important it is to prepare every single week. Like it's the biggest game of the week because it is. And, you know, so really excited to continue to watch this going down the stretch, but the quick passing game, the down the field stretching, this offense, man, is scary when they can fire on all cylinders. And when Kirk plays at the level at which he is playing 80% of the time. I think that the 20% of the time it might get us in trouble,

but 80% of the time I think Kirk is playing at an extremely high level, top 10 in the league type quarterback play. This has to be for them kind of a rope-a-dope situation, like you were talking about, where they are going to have to run and throw short passes and try to move the sticks, move the sticks, move the sticks, and then bang down the field for 20 or 30 yards to Justin Jefferson. And they only threw three passes that traveled through the air 20 or more yards. All three of them were caught by Justin Jefferson, though. And that, I mean, that is a model that can work. I mean, really what Kirk Cousins is doing this year, more than anything, is he's playing Alex Smith football, which Alex Smith football won a lot of games through Alex Smith's

career. It didn't get all the way to the Super Bowl. And I guess that's going to be their next challenge is can you have an offensive attack that can air it out when you have to go toe to toe with another offense that's going to be able to put up, you know, 30 points, 40 points against you potentially, like, can you win one of those shootout type of games? Or can your defense even hold the team down at all, considering that they gave up 382 yards to Mac Jones? So that's definitely goes under the things we need to talk about as well. What happened on that side of the ball?

I don't remember another game recently where maybe it was 2018 against the Rams where I felt so much like, wow, that was amazing on offense. Wow. That was horrendous on defense because they did it against the Patriots. It wasn't like a Carolina Panthers game or something like that. It was against the Patriots. But I think that that's the mentality that they have to have is we're going to work the ball to Hawkinson somehow either find a way to get the ball to KJ Osborne or play Jalen Rager instead, or play two tight ends instead.

I mean, it's just getting frustrating to watch him week after week have zero impact. So there's more that they can do here. And I want to ask you about this too. The screen game is a tragedy at this point. They are one of the worst in the league statistically. Delvin Cook is not involved at all in this passing game, which, by the way, like next year when we all write the,

they're going to throw it to Delvin Cook more. Like, no, they're not. But, I mean, at least in the past he had a surprise screen here or there that would go for 20 or 30 yards. This year they're averaging about four yards a screen. They're trying these tight end slip screens that don't work. There's more meat on the bone here. It's like they did a really good job in this game,

probably for the first time of driving their success with the passing game, maybe since Chicago. But even that was like one quarter. This was like four quarters of offense and passing driving your success. But there's still areas where they can be better and need to be better if they're going to do something in the playoffs. Yeah. You know, that's a great place to be as an offense when you have things that are successful and, you know, you can go back to the well on those things. But you know that there's so much more out there for you.

You know, there's still, what, six weeks? Six weeks left to this regular season? You know, there's a lot of time to improve on a lot of things. And when you're sitting here going, yeah, we've got a huge lead in the division. We're basically a lock to make the playoffs. Like, let's really start honing in and focusing on some of these improvement areas so that when we do make it to the playoffs,

we're firing on all centers like we talked about. And I think that, you know, grading it from biggest need to least need, I think the running game is the number one need to just get more consistent at whether it's hey we're going to stick with outside zone inside zone between the tackles pin and pull whatever it is let's commit to it and continue to sharpen our skills at it number two the screen game right slow these pass rushers down if you're going to be playing against san francisco and the eagles like you have to slow these pass rushers down watching you're going to be playing against san francisco and the eagles like you have to slow these pass rushers down watching that eagles team just dismantle the green bay packers offensive

line last night from their first line to their second line there is no drop off so you know when you're looking at the teams you're going to be competing against in the playoffs you have to start planning for those now you have to start like game planning okay what are we going to do so that we can practice them and get game reps at them now? So that when we do meet them in the playoffs, we're ready to execute. So I think the run game, the screen game, and then just overall the down the field, the down the field shots protection. Hey, is it seven man protection? Do we keep a tight end in, do we bring CJ Hammond and have him and Alvin come off the edge and full slide the line, you know, just finding ways to protect up those downfield shots so that they, we can do them more frequently, but that we're not putting ourselves at risk for sack fumbles

or getting Kirk hurt, you know? So those are kind of my three big things to work on and refine because you're right. There's a lot left in this offense. And if we can even get two out of the three of those things refined by the time the playoff shot, we're going to have, we're going to give ourselves a chance in every single game because we just have too many playmakers and i think that the uh play action game is so important for them and i don't think it's been a strength of o'connell this year in fact i mean this is the first time in cousins career where his completion percentage is lower when using play action than when he's doing straight drop back and that's just not good like Like for him, he's been the elite, kind of like the premier play action quarterback, but we finally saw that against new England. And I also noticed that

CJ Ham snap count went probably the highest. Let me look here since, since week eight. So the highest snap count he's had in a while, it wasn't super high. It was only 10 snaps, but Kevin, you have this guy like you have and and you know that the other team when the fullback is in there or the double tight ends are in there the other team is going to have to look at and be like okay what is this is this going to be them slamming it down our throats with delvin is this going to be play action what's going to happen here and every so often you could just throw it to cj and he runs for 30 yards like it'll surprise the other team i i think that mixing these in more often and really putting a focus on the play action game is just fundamental to who

Kirk Cousins needs to be as a quarterback. And I thought sort of finally got it, you know, like all year it's been, there's been sort of dribbles of it and there's been sections of it at times where you felt like, oh, okay, now they're doing some of the stuff that really works for Kirk. And then they would get away from it. Seven steps, straight drop backs and deep developing routes down the field. Like that's just not him. Like I was watching Joe Burrow play yesterday. He throws this unbelievable back shoulder fade at the end zone. I'm just like, that's not Kirk. Like that's not your quarterback. Your quarterback needs to have those play actions and hit those open deep shots down the field.

And now he's trusting Jefferson a little bit more to take those shots, which I think is important. So it's starting to come together. But I had a question about this, though. When in 2017 did you guys actually believe in yourselves? Because we had a lot of the same conversations. We were going like Keenum, he beat Brett Hundley, like who cares, okay, whatever, backup quarterbacks.

I remember when I thought it, that this team was for real in 2017. But do you remember when the locker room was kind of like, okay, we are seriously good at football? To be honest with you, I don't know if we ever really had that moment. You know, I think we all just kind of were like, let's just see what we can do this week. You know, and then all of a sudden it was like, oh, we won the division. Like, okay, we're 13 and three. You know, like it was because it was almost like scramble mode every week. Cause it was always like, someone's hurt. Someone's not playing. Where are we playing this guy? Who's going to start?

Like, is Teddy back? Is Teddy not back? Is back is case like it was just this scramble mode every single week that it wasn't until we kind of secured the first round by that we were like hey we got we got something going here like we we got and I think when we went into Lambeau on Sunday night football and beat them Sunday night was kind of the stamp of I don't remember that was week 16 or 15 or something like that. You know, I think that was the stamp that was like, that's the Packers. We swept the Packers this year. We're number one, let's go do this thing. And I think that would, for me, my personal moment, because I ended up having to jump in that game, like sixth play, because Nick Eason snapped his ankle or something and played that whole game. And that was when David Morgan had the long snap because Kevin McDermott tore his finger off, you know, but just kind of that same scramble mode where we found a way to you got to win Sunday night football.

And Lambeau was for me the moment I was like, OK, it's time for us to go make a run at this thing. Yeah, that was a that was a crazy night. It was like minus two or something. It was really cold. It was really, really cold. It was even walking. You know how tough I am. I mean, walking to the parking lot

after the game, I remember being like, people played outside all day in this while I was eating sausages upstairs. Yeah, it was cold. It was extremely cold. But that was memorable because of what a grind fest win that had to be. And I think, oh, I remember that that was the night, I think Harrison had maybe two interceptions or something. And I remember that they didn't name him to the Pro Bowl initially. And I wrote something like more like Pro B-L-O-L. Like, come on, man. Like, this guy's all pro, but not making the Pro Bowl on the initial roster. But, yeah, that's a good one.

The game I was going to nominate was Atlantalanta where you beat los angeles at home and it was a super impressive win and then all of a sudden everyone went like oh vikings but then there was a you had to go to atlanta and play them and they were still pretty good and i think there was an entire drive where they did nothing but run latavius murray and jerek mckinnon for a touchdown and the defense had to come through at the end. Julio Jones got shut down completely by Rhodes in that game. Those are kind of like those, okay, you can come off a huge win and then do it again on the road in Atlanta. And the same kind of feeling here where it's like you can go to Buffalo

and get a win and then, okay, you lose one that's pretty bad, but the next week you come right back. I do remember some seeds of doubt in Carolina when you lost that game. In the locker room after, I remember the receivers kind of having a whisper meeting to themselves out of a little frustration with Case. But I guess everybody got over it. But it's, you know, but that's the thing. Like, that shows you how sort of fragile everything is when you're asking the question from week to week are we for real because i think that there's no way to really

block that out even if you're on the team yeah and that's the thing is when you're not a completely dominant football team which this year there's i mean chiefs and eagles maybe that i would say right now are completely dominant there's always mean, the margin for error between victory and defeat is so slim, so, so slim. And so when you're a team that's on the cusp of, yeah, we've won a lot of games, but we saw how quickly can go off the rails all out Dallas. Like you got to make sure every week you check yourself. And that's what I mean by, I'm really curious to see how, okay.

I love how Kevin O'Connell and the leaders handled the quick turnaround off the defeat to, to winning. But now like you understand and you remember what it felt to win that huge game and then to have the letdown. And that's every week now is that huge game. As you come down the stretch, every single week is going to be high emotion, high energy, have to win because you have teams that are not in the Vikings position that they have to win out to go to the playoffs. Right. So every game is their Super Bowl. So every game is ramped up. And so how you handle winning plays a huge factor down the stretch of how the like continued success you can have as you go into the playoffs where it's literally win or

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So check it out. It's your local grocery store water aisle at Hy-Vee, Target, Whole Foods, and lots of other stores. You can see them at liquid death.com slash insider. That's liquid death.com slash insider. And also as far as what it means, okay, you've got the North wrapped up. You're all set, but there is a big difference in my mind between the number two and the number three. And of course the number two and the number one, it's not a guarantee that Philadelphia just wins the rest of their games, so you're competing for that.

But also you don't want San Francisco to catch you. San Francisco looks like a machine at this point. They are just a beast. They can win in a lot of different ways, and they're right behind you. Two games back, but they could possibly catch you if you start to drift a little. The seventh seed right now is Washington, which you're not afraid of really at all.

And then Seattle is right on their coattails. It matters who you play in the playoffs, and you really want either Washington or Seattle to have to come here and not maybe a New York Giants that could be a little scary for you with their defensive line and with their running game, that those are kind of weaknesses for this Vikings team. And also Daniel Jones is playing pretty well. If they got healthy, they would be more scary to me than some of those other teams in the

seven seed. So it does matter. But it almost doesn't matter who's playing quarterback against this Vikings defense the last couple of weeks. What in your mind is happening here? Because on our website, Paul Hodowanek wrote a story about should they blitz more? And I think that's the fundamental thing that comes up. And even I, out of frustration the other night, tweeted like,

at some point you have to go after Mac Jones. The guy's one of the worst quarterbacks versus the blitz in the league, and you're just letting him sit back there. Is it that simple, or is it the fact that they don't have Tomlinson, the fact that they don't have Dantzler? I think that those things matter as well. But what is your feeling on the they should blitz more? know but the problem is Z'Darrius Smith is about 80% it looks like on tape it doesn't you you're not seeing the same violence and the same like twitchiness that I saw out of him the first half of the season and I don't know if that's because he's got a knee thing going or if he's just getting

old or we asking him to do too many snaps or whatever it is but you see now when he's not at 100% and they can double the Neil Hunter, the pass rush is basically non-existent. Like Mac Jones had all day to throw back there. Now, if your answer is, well, just blitz more, well, that's not necessarily always going to get home. You know, our blitzing hasn't been elite this year. You know, I wouldn't say that our blitz schemes have been like home run hitters, free runners, smashing the quarterback. I mean, offensive lines spend hours, and I mean hours during the week, looking at third down blitz protection schemes. How do we scheme it up? What's their tendencies?

How do we pick it up so that when we do pick it up, there's huge chunk plays down the field? You know, and that was what fired me up as an O-lineman. I can specifically remember playing Baltimore in 2017, and we spent probably 30 minutes in the film room looking at one of these blitzes that's like if they give us this look because they've gotten home on this look here's the check here's how we're gonna get it case is gonna put the ball here and it's gonna be perfect and we saw it and like all of us looked at each other on the field like this is it and we picked

it up huge play touchdown and like we ran down and celebrated you know so teams spend hours so if you're saying well just blitz more you still have to win you still have to win your matchups up front because, yeah, it's one-on-ones. But I haven't seen a lot of guys winning their one-on-one matchups up front. Harrison Phillips isn't known for his great pass rushing ability besides his week against Buffalo where he had a billion pressures. Daniil Hunter is getting doubled. Darius Smith isn't winning his one-on-ones. I think getting Tomlinson back is going to help because he's a pusher in the middle to help collapse the interior part of that. But our greatest blitzer last year was Anthony Barr, and he's not here anymore. Eric Kendricks is a good blitzer, but he's not a guy that's going to

just lock up a running back and beat him physically like Anthony Barr used to. We don't have that linebacker that's just a physical mismatch on a running back to win when you say, hey, we're sending five, and this dude's just going to beat the running back. So those are things that I'm noticing as far as the blitz more mentality. It's just not necessarily a guarantee for more pressure. Yeah. And this is something that I've sort of gone back and forth about because fans ask about it a lot because it's so noticeable when you come off of Mike Zimmer, who didn't blitz an insane amount, but my God, when he did, I mean, you just saw quarterbacks completely melt. You talk about from a week-to-week basis, opponents trying to prepare for Zimmer and his blitzes. They just couldn't do it because it was Anthony Barr about how flexible it was about how it was like they could not be in a blitz look at all but then they would see a protection change and suddenly Anthony Barr would push a button and then all of a sudden you are because he had lots of options I don't know if

you have that player now like you have Jordan Hicks but he's not Anthony Barr that's why Zimmer would fight for Anthony Barr kind of to the ends of the earth because I think his intelligence played such a huge huge role in that but I look at what they did against New England as far as pass rush one player who rushed more than five times uh had a grade above average from PFF like that's just not gonna cut it even Mac Jones even Mike White even Daniel Jones any quarterback in the league with no pressure at all is going to be able to find guys. And I think that it's just, it's just tough because I get it. But I also think if you're a team that needs sacks and interceptions, maybe you do have to turn up the heat because you're just giving up these plays anyway. Right? Like I understand the philosophy, but I also see,

I remember Dave Wanstead of all people saying like you blitz the bad ones and you cover against the good ones. Well, Mac Jones, isn't one of the good ones. So that, you know, I guess that I'm going to defend the people who want them to blitz more here because Duke Shelley's getting beaten one way or the other. It's just, can you actually provide a little extra heat? But I do agree that they don't have a blitz specialist and they also, they would prefer having Harrison Smith play in the parking lot and not come up to the box, which is a thing.

I think that if we're talking about a big mistake that they've made, that's probably the biggest, most glaring error. You're talking about one of the best safeties, maybe in the history of the game, at coming up to the box. And you're saying, why don't you go play like you're Trey Boston or something? Or Anthony Harris, go play way out in the middle of the field. Like, I don't really think that they've used him to his fullest this year. I was going to echo that point, you know, between Anthony Barr, it was Anthony Barr, blitzer number one, and then Harrison Smith blitzer number two. And, you know, we've talked about, they like him being the eraser in the backend and Duke Shelley is getting beat, but

guess who's there to make the tackle. So it's not a touchdown. It's 22. And so there's a piece of that. And I also just don't think this defense is built to have safeties in the box. It's not Seattle of where you had Jamal Adams coming from the Jets or Seattle all over the place, right? Off the edges, in the B gap, A gap. You just had to always account for where he was. And that used to be how it was. You had to know where Anthony Barr was and Harrison Smith was

when you played the Vikings. And it's just not like that anymore and so you know that's like I said there's not a lot of prep that goes into how to pick up it's pretty common blitzes that the Vikings use I don't think that they have a really exotic blitz plan and that I don't think that's something you can just install mid-season either you know that's not something it's like hey we're going to install this blitz plan and we're going to install this coverage with our backup corner and our backup safety. And everyone's going to be on the same page. And it's going to be a check when we see a specific coverage, you know, it's just, it's not something you can just install right now with

the personnel that we have. And I think we're just going to continue to rely on guys to win up front. And that's a risk reward thing that you have to kind of roll the dice with because there's been times it's been great. And there's been times it's been really, really bad. And so you've got to figure out kind of like, is there ways we can twist guys? You know, put Harrison, not, excuse me, put Daniil and put Zadaris on the same side and let them run twist games against each other

or line up in exotic fronts, three guys to one side and one guy to the other to really get him on that one-on-one situation and just try and scheme up ways to get guys one-on-one opportunities and then once you do that scheme wise then you're basically like all right boys you paid a lot of money go get the quarterback um so last year harrison smith rushed the passer 43 times so that's several times per game right i would like you to guess how many pass rush reps he has this year nine six close six times and last year he had three sacks eight pressures the year before he had 13 pressures on 36 rushes it doesn't take a lot to get harrison smith after the quarterback hey if the coaching

staff is listening to our show for adjustments hint hint nod nod feel free to use that guy to his fullest uh because i think that that could be key but i i totally understand what you're saying like if you're not a team like the giants or baltimore that spends their whole offseason training camp everything else installing a zillion and one blitzes and then you're just mid-season like hey fellas let's all go learn all the nuances and details in four days before we play Mac Jones. I understand that. I do think that anytime you get a couple extra days, it should be time to look yourself in the mirror and go, what are we going to do here? Because they really do have to find a way. But on the whole, they found a way to win. Now, I have to ask you about special teams with this team, because most of the time,

look, it's not, it's not a big topic on a podcast. Most of the time with special teams. Am I wrong in saying this is the best darn special teams unit I have ever seen in my life. I, at least that I've ever covered when I say that,

I mean that I've ever covered, there might be some better special teams unit for the chargers in Oh three or something that I don't know about, but this is the most impactful special teams. And as a gentleman like yourself that played on special teams, what is, what is this? Like, how is this happening? That every week there are impact plays on special teams that help this team win games. You know, the number one thing on special teams for everyone. And it's the number one coaching port is like, don't lose the game. You know, like if you're just good and you don't have splash plays and you're just good, it's an excellent special teams day. And I think that's been the number one thing is there has been a lot of penalties, right? So like, even if it's a fair

catch at the 20, there's not a hold on the gunner. So we're starting at the 10, you know, there's been really smart about when to take their chances on bringing balls out versus just saying hey it's a touchback let's just take our take our licks take it on the 25 and go and then the biggest thing is our punter is he needs a statue he needs a statue put him in put him in the ring of fame because the way he can flip the field and pin guys deep and allow our defense to play that bend, don't break coverage from the 15 and the 10 instead of the 30 or the 40 has been a big reason why we've been so successful. And then on the other side of it, our punt return unit has been really good of no muffs. I think we only have one or two muffs on the year.

They've been really good, again, no penalties. So if it's a fair catch, we're starting where we need to start. And it's just been really consistent. The number one thing with special teams is don't lose the game on a stupid thing and then just be consistent and play complementary football. And that comes down from coaching to how the special teamers, the guys that are just true special teamers, that's all they do, how they prepare and go about their week because they know they play a pivotal role

in to win football games. And you see that it's just a really good unit right now. I think it's a good cohesive unit, and we're going to need them going forward. Tis the season for you to buy the best Minnesota sports themed apparel in the world for all of your friends and family go to soda stick.com. They have great holiday shopping deals there and use the promo code insider. That is S O T A S T I C K.com. Code insider for all of your holiday shopping.

We're not all crazy to be talking about the coaching here, right? I mean, because I think that that's, that's part of the big thing. The other part is that they haven't had to have guys come up off special teams to play on defense or offense very much. So their special teamers are special teamers. Like a good example is like Chris Boyd or Brian Asamoah. Like those guys can really focus Josh Metellus on just being special teamers and they don't have to try to do it all. And there are some players who have gotten to develop as special teamers, which really, I think if you're in your third year as a special teamer, you must be a really good player because they'll cut you if you're not. So someone like Josh Metellus, it says a lot about him. So I think it's personnel a little bit that it's not just a bunch of rookies and guys

trying to like just hang around on the team, but more of good players. But I also think that Matt Daniels deserves all the hype that he's been given. There's been a lot. We've all written Matt Daniels features, but I think he's been given. There's been a lot. We've all written Matt Daniels features, but I think he's deserving of that. Yeah, no, I completely agree. I think it's coaching and it's also guys embracing your role. You know, when you have a lot of guys on a team

that think I'm above special teams, it tells. I mean, a guy that reminds me of that is Laquan Treadwell. He was like, I'm a first round pick. I don't play special teams. Well, you're not very good, so you better play special teams. But, you know, when you have guys, I think of a guy i played with um stucky he was from kansas he played as a safety for the chargers he was a special teams captain he played in the league for 12 years majority on special teams he made it his job to lead that special teams unit and we had

really good special teams and when i was in san diego, you know, and so when you have guys that know their role and embrace it as like, I am a starter on punt, I am a starter on kickoff. And I may only get 20 snaps a game on all four core units, but those 20 snaps a game matter. And when those things matter, it turns into good things that for the offense, good things for the defense. And you see that you see guys that are not mad that they're playing special teams, but they're excited that they get the opportunity to do it. And that's what you need to do. And that comes from how you approach it from a head coaching perspective, from a special teams perspective, from an offense defensive coordinator process where it's like, listen, if you're not, if you're receiver number six, get your butt in the special teams meeting room. We don't need you in here right now. And that's okay.

And if the longest guys can embrace that and it becomes a full team and it's not like, Oh, I'm getting screwed. Cause I'm on special teams. That's when you see the success in special teams. And so, yeah, I think that special teams coordinator deserves a ton of credit for what he's been able to do in one year. I think that it's sort of like offensive line in a way that if you have the best unit in the league or the worst unit in the league, it really makes a difference. If you're number 15, it's probably just like survive and advance all those plays, But it has made a huge difference this year. However, the one asterisk is extra points.

Okay, so here's the fundamental question. We talked about this with Ed Ingram. It's like if you're a struggling player on a team that's winning all the time, what do you do? Do you bench the guy? But then everyone goes, what are you benching him for? We won the game. And the same thing with Greg Joseph. Do you bring in other kickers and have them kick it around TCO Performance Center

and be like, look, Greg, others. I mean, that's what Zimmer did with Blair Walsh. And, you know, they made that change. And Kai Forbath was great. And he hit the game. Well, was it go ahead kick or whatever it was late in the game of the Minneapolis Miracle from 52 or something? I mean, there are other human beings who can boot footballs and maybe make a darn extra point. So that that to me is a very tricky situation because you could argue, hey, look, guys, you're trying to go win the Super Bowl.

You can't have a kicker that can't even make an extra point. But then there's also the like, well, Greg hasn't cost you yet. So maybe everybody likes Greg. Like, I don't know. It's a really hard one. Yeah, and it's the age old like grass isn't always greener. You know, like I think of a guy like Brett Maher, right? Like Dallas hated Brett Maher.

They could not run him out of there fast enough. And now he's come back and he is just the man down there. But you're always like, it's like the, in college football, like the backup quarterbacks, everyone's favorite position on the team. Like sometimes like the kicker on the street is everyone's like, oh, see, he can do it. But can he?

Because if he could, there's 32 other spots that he could be doing it at, you know? And he's, Greg Joseph's proven to hit some big kicks when we need him, but I think the extra point thing is more of a mental block. I think he's got the yips a little bit because you know he can do it, dude. It's like swing the leg. It's a golf swing. You've done it a million freaking times, but every now and then you get the yips in you

a little bit, and it is going to cost one of these games if he misses one in a big-time moment, but I don't think you can rattle this dude's psyche because kickers are fragile human beings. Fragile human beings. And I don't think you can rattle this dude's psyche because kickers are fragile human beings for fragile human beings. And I don't think you can just start like, Hey, you see, we're bringing in kickers to try out on Tuesdays, like basically kind of putting you on notice. Cause that can absolutely crumble, crumble certain guys. And we can't have him crumbling. We need to find ways I think to build him up and be around him. And whether that's guys

patting him on the back or whatever he needs, he's like, again, I don't know. Cause every kicker's love language is a little different of how you kind of bring them up, but whatever he needs, I think it's more rally around him than put him on notice. Um, Greg Joseph, I think is a more mentally strong person than say Blair Walsh. Um, but also I'll tell you this, Mike Zimmer berated those dudes. I loved them and yeah but that was if there was one thing where i was like golly dude it was the way he came down on kickers like i mean i i if this was a censored podcast i could share some stories but you know this the way he did that i don't think was well and it hurt our team well he never showed it uh mike just just so warm and fuzzy towards him all the time i really

thought he liked those kickers what what a surprise uh when he my favorite though was the daniel carlson when he missed an extra point in the preseason game and they went for two and he could have easily just been like oh yeah you know we just wanted to practice some two pointers he was like no if you can't make an extra point and we're going for two and he could have easily just been like oh yeah you know we just wanted to practice some two-pointers he was like no if you can't make an extra point and we're going for two just ruthless let me ask you this though off of the special teams point um and the only thing you can do with greg joseph is look up to the sky and say dear football gods don't have this cost us because kickers are so hard to predict. Who knows? And I think that it's probably a better idea to just stick with them,

but it's getting kind of scary every week. When you look at the playoff picture, tell me who you want to face, who you don't want to face, because this now becomes every week. It's not just watching the Vikings game. Every week is watching all the other games to see who your matchup might end up being. And it also matters to those last two games. Like, will they have to play starters week 18 or will, you know, will they be fighting for a position or who could they match up against? Who do you like as a matchup and who makes you a little nervous?

The number one team that makes me nervous right now is the San Francisco 49ers. That team, what they've been able to do on defense the last two weeks has been incredibly now granted, they have been playing powerhouses, but at the same time, like they have built that defense to stop the run and, and blitz and rush the passer. Like that is a scary defense. That is a, that's going to be a hard out for anyone that draws them. And because they started so kind of crappy at the beginning of the year, they're going to be a lower seed. They're going to win their division, but they're not going to be a hard out for anyone that draws them. And because they started so kind of crappy at the beginning of the year, they're going to be a lower seed.

They're going to win their division, but they're not going to be a higher seed. They're going to play against a good team. I think the Giants are another team that's so dinged up right now. I wouldn't love playing them because Saquon's got some ability, Daniel Jones. The easiest matchup is the Commanders. I think the Commanders is a team that you're like, okay, they might work their way in. Same with Seattle. I think those two teams are the most friendly right now of how you

want to go up because you start looking at some of the other teams the way that they're built defensively they all get after the pass rusher really really well um those two teams are good up front at stopping the run but i don't think they have the werewolves that some of the other teams the nfc have i think that at least two guys on washington are scary because they'd who they'd be matching up against right and and so they really got after kirk in the interior but the thing about washington that doesn't scare me is their secondary which i think you could pretty easily beat with justin jefferson as they showed if you could protect kirk and also with the adjustments that they have made now to go with

more of a short passing game i think that matchup is good for them it does scare me a little more than Seattle though because I feel like Geno might turn into a pumpkin but more than anything they can't stop you and me out there I'll run behind you and you can block the Seattle defense and we'll score because they're bad I mean they are really bad for what happened against the Raiders but they also gave up like 40 something points to the Lions. Like, that is not a good defense. And the Vikings versus a defense that really stinks, I kind of like that matchup. So this does become very interesting.

I also am intrigued by the matchup with the Giants because that could happen again. And so how do you play against the Giants when you go head-to-head and what do we see from them? Because their offensive line is beat up, so they can't run the ball the same. You know, their playmakers have been banged up. They just got rid of one in Tony for what reason? I'm not really quite sure. So kind of interesting there. Just before we wrap up, though, Jeremiah, I want to ask you,

how many wins now do you think that the Vikings end up with? We pushed the meter as the season has gone along. I think it started at maybe nine, and then it went up to like 10, and then 11, but now 11 very much in sight. What do you think they end up with? I think 13 is very much in sight now. I think 13 wins is very much a realistic thing, and flirting with 14. I think 14 could be a coin flip either way,

but I think 13 is the obtainable where we should aim as a team of like, hey, let's get to 13. That makes us 13 and four, like moving in. And that means we drop a couple as we head on to the season here, but that's okay. You know, but I think if you can get to 13 wins, you'd put yourself in a really good position to be either the one or the two seed in the NFC and build a lot of momentum heading into

the playoffs yeah I agree 13 uh real quick because I know you got to run but real quick do you love or hate to see it that Matt Rule is the coach of Nebraska I gotta love to see it I can't I can't allow myself to hate to see it I have to love to see it what I don't love is the eight year eight and a half million price tag that we're going to pay this dude because kind of all your money in one basket there. And that's okay. He's a proven winner in college. You can't compare coaching in college and coaching in the NFL. It is apples and oranges. So whoever wants to argue with me on that front, pound sand, because you just can't. But I think that he's the right guy um you know i

think trev went and got his guy what i did my hate to see it is luke fickle going to wisconsin because that that was my i would have loved luke fickle nebraska and i the fact that he's going to go to wisconsin scares me a little bit because wisconsin has always known how to beat nebraska a lot of nebraskan tax dollars going to coaches yes lots and 20 i think the last 20 years we've been paying a coach that hasn't been here or something ridiculous like that i'm sure that couldn't be used for any other thing to do with the state of nebraska nothing nothing else that we need besides head football coaches living retirement off of us as as in the background a bridge collapses or something it's

like it's okay we got our guy just walk over it we're gonna win eight games to go to a bowl game next year at least you're gonna get to the game uh well thanks so much for your time as always another super fun at tuesday morning left guard and now the march to the playoffs man this is uh totally different feeling than say november 28th of last year from where we were at. It has changed a lot. So, Jeremiah Searles, thank you so much, sir, and we will talk again soon. Absolutely. See you next week.