Purple Insider - a Minnesota Vikings and NFL podcast - Star Tribune's Andrew Kramer talks key matchups between Vikings and Lions

Episode Date: January 4, 2025

Matthew Coller and Star Tribune's Andrew Kramer go position-by-position and preview the best matchups for Sunday's game Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Hey everybody, welcome to another episode of Purple Insider. Matthew Collar here along with Star Tribune's Andrew Kramer. We've done this every week, the hardcore preview, but this week is just different. Andrew, you got to bring it. You got to amp up that energy for this one. As we go through, I think we should just do position by position look i mean it's that kind of day this isn't just storylines like we're going into a jaguars game i need hardcore breakdowns here this versus this top matchups of the game some a long snapper technique oh i mean pro bowl long snapper technique you say all pro question mark uh i think uh we should begin with uh detroit's quarterback versus minnesota's defense how about that for a old matchup that's going to

make a difference i am super fascinated to see how jared goff deals with whatever brian flores is going to throw at him do you expect Flores to mix in more man coverage, drop back more guys, run more blitzes, or just as many as he did last time? How do you think Brian Flores will approach this game? The only time I'm sure Brian Flores is going to blitz, I think, is first and second down when Jameer Gibbs might be getting the ball.

I mean, this Vikings team run blitzes more than anybody. Obviously, the pass blitzes, the zone drops, that gets all the attention, but they need to stop Jameer Gibbs. Jameer Gibbs went for 160 yards from scrimmage and two touchdowns in that first game against the Vikings in October. The Vikings obviously lost. The Lions obviously don't have David Montgomery. It's going to be the Gibbs show. And I think they're going to blitz the heck out of them and then try to get into long third downs where they're going to ask the Lions would have to ask Jared Goff to win them the game. And he can do that. He threw five touchdowns against the Buffalo Bills. Obviously they lose that game, but they go down 14, nothing. And he's the only reason they're able to come back. Cause I think they have fewer than no running back at

more than 10 carries for the lions in that game so i know they're going to blitz early i don't know what he's going to do on third down when you look at how they match up with this lions team there have been times where we've seen including in that october 20th game where flora's kind of backed off and tried to take away some options for golf and tried to trust his pass rushers to get after him this is not a offense in the lions where you have to worry about the mobility at quarterback so i wonder if grunard van ginkle um and pat you know pat jones is not going to play but it'll probably be a lot of dallas turner i think those guys are going to be asked to do quite a bit getting after the quarterback jihad ward as well um and then it'll be interesting to see how he decides to pepper that in because this is a defense matt we know

it can shape shift it can do whatever it wants um and And I we don't know week to week what's going to happen. I mean, the Lions don't know. And certainly we don't. I was really intrigued by some of the numbers from the last game where the Vikings did pressure Jared Goff a lot in that football game, but he dealt with it really well. Historically though, that's not really his thing. Even this year by PFF grade, he's the 22nd best quarterback when it comes to playing against pressure that day he was on point and there were a lot of collapsing pockets and so forth. People falling at his feet, getting hit right after he throws, but he would stand in and make a great throw, especially down the middle of the field. But I think if you're Flores, you have to wonder, wait, if we pressure him that much

again, is he really going to be able to repeat that performance when that's not generally something he's done that well? And a matchup to watch is Jonathan Grenard versus Taylor Decker. Jonathan Grenard, eight Taylor Decker, a live six pressures allowed by Taylor Decker in that game against Grenard. And Grenard also had the strip sack right at the end of the game and they recovered it. But, uh, I think that that matchup also is a pretty serious mismatch for the Vikings to that might convince them that they can get home with four. And we also might see a lot of, if you could just confuse them once, because the difference might be one possession here or there that a team fails on,

or one turnover. If you put a lot of guys at the line of scrimmage, you're dropping back Dallas Turner, who might be coming a coverage weapon at this point after his very impressive interception at Seattle. Some of the times he's tracked down guys or been in the right position. Do you put people at the line of scrimmage and then make Jared Goff sort through it post-snap? Who's going to be where? Or as JTO Sullivan says, who's who in the zoo? Make him figure out who's who in the zoo. I think there's going to be a lot of that from Flores. I wouldn't be shocked if they show a lot of those looks. How much they bring is what I'm curious about because you mentioned how well he played. I do remember I I think, one of their touchdown passes

against the Vikings in that October game was against a free blitzer that they were able to scheme up on Goff. And Andrew Van Ginkle said afterward that this guy has changed in terms of how he's grown as a quarterback against pressure when he's under pressure. That's a lot different from the 2020 game where Van Ginkle was part of that Miami team that beat Goff and the Rams so much with the blitzes that they threw at him.

Although Van Ginkle also made a point to say that this is also really well-coached offense. Ben Johnson gives the quarterback a lot of answers. Goff is equipped to get to all of those answers and is very good at it. So they expect the ball to come out fast. The Vikings do. They expect the quick game, much like the Packers tried to get on them in that win last week. But the Lions are better at it. The Lions are more on par with a team like the Rams, who have the playmakers to get the ball out on the perimeter. Jamison Williams is somebody

who they've really leaned into in the second half of the season and used his speed. So I think you're right. They're going to show that stuff. It's just a question of how much do they want to send, knowing that that ball is going to come out pretty quickly. And the Vikings have had good experience against that stuff because it seems to be a theme offenses try to throw at them. Just get the ball out on the perimeter, make the corners tackle, make them kind of chase our runners. So the Vikings are well equipped to do it. They're well prepared for it. It's just a matter of can you tackle Amon Ross, St. Brown, and Jameson Williams on the perimeter? Getting the ball out quickly and those screen

passes and things like that was a pretty major problem for the Vikings throughout a good portion of the season. Now, lately, it doesn't feel like we've seen a lot of teams take advantage of that as much. They chased around Geno Smith against Seattle. He made some great plays, but they also kept him kind of scrambling. And the same with Jordan Love, who they caused a ton of problems for early in that game. And they didn't seem to have a strategy of throwing a lot of screens in quick throws. Will Detroit go back to that? And one thing that we know about Detroit and their play caller is Ben Johnson is patient. They will have a 12 or 15 play drive and then throw something at you. That is a deep shot is a trick play, something like that. And the trick play element

is something that needs to be discussed here because when a team is comfortable running hook and ladder in the middle of the field, I mean, I know they did it in a game where if they lost, it wasn't that big of a deal, but they've done it in other games, too. They're not afraid at all to do crazy stuff like this. And Brian Flores, his point was, if we play the right technique, there's answers for stuff like that. But how do you ever prepare yourself for a wide receiver just flipping the ball to somebody else, which the Lions could try to do on any of these plays. It reminds me of the Philadelphia offense that won the Super Bowl. Obviously, the Philly specials, the big trick play, but they were just so good that they could get to any different corner of the field, any different corner of their playbook, and then flip everything you wanted to do on its head with a trick play. And the Lions, they're an aggressive team by nature, by philosophy, but they're also a team that wants to prey on your aggressiveness to stop their run game, to stop their underneath quick stuff. And then they want to leverage it to whether it's a hook and ladder, a penasal reverse, all the ridiculous things that you see them do, the extra eligible tackle that sometimes doesn't

report as eligible as he did last year. There's different elements they're going to throw at you that is going to make the Vikings. Honestly, it's going to stress what I'm curious to see is how it stresses their personnel groupings. The Vikings like to change a lot. They like to get into different groupings for third and long, third and shorts, first down, whatever. They like to mix and match their personnel. And we've seen teams hit them with hurry up. We've seen teams hit them with tempo and the Lions can just as well use that as a weapon that if they find themselves, this happened in Seattle where I believe it was a third, um, yeah, it was a third down where the Vikings had their pass rush package on. Seattle gets a quick conversion.

Then, boom, that's a trigger to hurry up to the line. You keep that pass rush package on the field. They busted a big Kenny McIntosh run for like 13 yards after that. That's the kind of stuff Detroit can do with better talent. And they're going to do that against a defense that likes to, again, shape shift, mix and match. And if you get stuck with Jahad Ward and Dallas Turner as your interior rushers against Jameer Gibbs, you could be caught in a bad spot. So in general, Ben Johnson is going to find so many ways to trick you and get after you. But even something as simple as the hurry up, we've seen this defense

sometimes not respond well to. And I think personnel is part of it. I also think part of it is their check system where they, as defenders say, they want to be the one holding the, I don't know if they say the match or the pin, the grenade last, whatever the phrase is, they want to be holding it last and make the final check. Well, when you get into tempo and hurry up, offenses dictate those terms more than the defense can. And so I do think that is something to watch. Uh, I want to know your favorite or most intriguing man V man matchup with the lions offense versus the Vikings defense. I'll give you one for me. Uh, Frank Ragnow versus Harrison Phillips. We saw Harrison Phillips play. I think maybe his best game of the year against the green Bay Packers. He dominated their

offensive line, stuck guys in place, move bodies for linebackers. It was really impressive. Pushed guys back in the pass rush. Ragnow is a different kind of beast, one of the best centers in the entire NFL, and I think it kind of all starts with him. So that matchup and who wins that, or even if Harrison Phillips can stalemate that matchup, you're in pretty good shape, is going to determine how well they can use the middle of the field to run the football with Gibbs, where he's really good at sorting through and finding holes and accelerating. But if you can close them down, you can stop him from doing that. So that to me is a really, really big matchup in this game. Yeah, it's a good point because Harrison Phillips was awesome in that game. I thought

Jerry Tillery had the big hustle play to force the fumble. Jalen Redman was good in his return. Like they're getting good stuff from their defensive tackles that doesn't get talked about a ton. And now this Lions O-line is going to be a tougher matchup for them. But if the Vikings can get that similar production, it makes Cashman's job so much easier. It makes Pace's job so much easier. I can't really pick a matchup in the passing game because I feel like offenses are so good at moving guys around. And the Vikings are not going to shadow. They're not going to match. At most, they might put Gilmore on the open side of the field.

But there's not really one to pinpoint there, even though those are all fascinating to me. To piggyback off the run game stuff, it's going to be Cashman and Pace against Gibbs. How well are you going to tackle in those moments? Cashman was awesome, too, in that game against Green Bay. And even though Josh Jacobs still popped some runs, there's some scheme stuff there that they are worried about in terms of third and short, third and medium runs where teams are getting them on shotgun handoffs.

The Packers did that. They're expecting the Lions to do that as well. But in general, when it's first down, second down, how well are you going to bow up and tackle? Those defensive linemen need to play well well but so do those guys in the middle who are eventually going to be the ones for the most part wrapping them up cashman had 11 tackles one and a half sacks those guys as pass rushers are huge too as blitzers so if those two cashman and pace who again cashman was not there for that first lions game it's going to be huge having him here for

this game at Ford Field. If they can play well against Gibbs, hold them to under 100 yards from scrimmage, it can at least force you and put you in advantageous spots for Brian Flores to then get after it with the blitzes that we're talking about. Let's flip around to the other side. Sam Darnold, Kevin O'Connell versus the defense of the Detroit Lions, which I don't know if you've heard,

but they're a little banged up. However, they've got a lot of really good players still on the defense, and I think they've been underperforming for what they have. The Anzalone thing is up in the air. Seems like it might be a game-time decision. That's going to be huge

because their linebackers have struggled so much in coverage. They do have Amik Robertson, who has had a really good season for them. He can make plays on the football. Brian Branch, we saw before. Something I noticed, though, digging deep into the data before this game as a matchup I'm really interested in is just how they use Brian Branch because they like to play man coverage on that defense over the last four games for Detroit. Brian Branch has a 31 PFF grade when playing man coverage and has played it 50% of the time. 31 is catastrophic. That's as bad

as it gets for coverage. And I think with Branch, he's more of a roving type of player. He's a similar to a Josh Metellus or something who can play different spots, make plays. But is he a man to man cover corner? Not really. That's probably why he ended up as a second round draft pick. I think if they can hunt that matchup with trying to get him because they are short in the secondary into man to man situations, that there will be a lot of opportunities for Jefferson, for Addison, for Jalen Naylor, for TJ Hawkinson to make a lot of plays in this game. I'm pretty sure Carlton Davis played the first game against them, right? So if

they don't have it, they're not going to have him. He's on IR. And if Amik Robinson, I think, is banged up as well, he was the guy who really bodied Jordan Addison on that final third down in that first game where the Vikings had a chance to run the clock out if they can just loop that pass over Addison, which Darnold doesn't do. He overthrows Jefferson, but those guys are physical corners. Only Amik Robertson is out there. I don't even know who's replacing him, replacing Carlton Davis at this point, but I do wonder if the Brian Branch man-to-man stuff is a direct response to being more injured, and it might sound counterintuitive to play more man when you're more injured, but it sometimes controls the matchups better. If you can know that you're putting your better guys on their better guys, you can then double up somewhere else instead

of leaving it up to your zones. So I do wonder if this is just a response to how they feel they have to play. And if it is, the Vikings will take that. I mean, they love man-to-man coverage, as Justin Jefferson talks about. Addison is playing better than he did back in October. His connection with Darnold is so much better than it was then. The Vikings are just better suited to take advantage of that if that's the case. If the Lions want to walk in here and try to play man-to-man, what has made the Vikings struggle is, or at least put a cap on their offense, it's when teams sell out more and say,

we're just going to play a bunch of quarters, a bunch of two deep. We're just going to back off and then mix kind of what zones we play and then force Darnold to check it down a bunch. Because when you talk about the Lions patients, that is an area Sam Darnold's grown in, but it's one that I think a smart defense should probably try to test him in again to see if he continues to be that patient. I do think the biggest area of growth has been by a mile, Sam Darnold with the underneath passing game. I think there was some crazy stat from last week. Like he was 25 of 26 when throwing under 10 yards. I mean, he has been accurate on time on a week to week basis. I felt like it really started against Chicago where they played so

deep in that game, trying not to give up all the big plays that they gave up the first time that he was dinking and dunking. And he only averaged something like six yards an attempt that day, but he was really good. And I think there's been a mix of that since where there's been some deep shots and there's been some 25 yard in routes and things like that, but he has gotten to be patient. And there was no better evidence of that than a play where they against green Bay, they protected it really well. And instead of forcing it to someone or throwing it away or scrambling, he sat and he went through his reads and then he went back to the first read and then he waited for Hawkinson to break open and then he hit him and it ends up being a first down on i think it was maybe a third down and short and that sort of showed to me that he's

hanging with some of those short reads because early in the season we saw him all right if it's not there i'm going to kind of scramble out or something like that so he has grown pretty significantly in his understanding of how all the pieces are connected and i think the big thing is just trusting. The trust he had in the protection on that, the protection was phenomenal. It was just a four-man rush he had all day. But he'd also been flustered in the previous couple drives. I think this was the second or third drive of the game.

He had been flustered early by protection. The Vikings, for as good as they played on the O-line that day, didn't start off great. There was one play where Devontae Wyatt spins Brian O'Neal around and kind of shoves him backwards. They had given up some early leakage, and for Darnold to stand there then at that moment like you talk about and trust it, it is showing that he's got a really good clock going right now in his head for knowing the feel for the guys in front of him,

which have changed throughout the year, should be mentioned, and then having that presence of mind to not lean on your feet too much. I would imagine a huge coaching point with him all year has been, you can run. We want you to run to create, especially to create, to throw, but you also got to hang in there and trust the pocket. Sometimes it was something Kirk was so good at doing because he knew he could never run. So, but Donald knows he can, and that's actually a battle for guys who are mobile of knowing when to hang in there because you know you've got this weapon to get out and run. He's grown in that front. He's grown on the check down, the progression stuff.

He's also grown in terms of the pass protection stuff. We've heard coaches this week mention that in that Green Bay game, there were points where Darnold had to take the reins on the protection and change things because he's the guy standing. He's the guy who can see everything. Garrett is in charge of a lot of it, but he's hunched over a football. You got to trust the quarterback who has the vision to fully see things, veto things and jump in there. He's starting to do that more. And when you saw earlier last month, the Cardinals game where they sack

them five times or sending a bunch of blitzes that they didn't seem totally prepared for. Those are the moments where Darnold didn't command that so well. And even in the last month of the season, we've seen that progression, which that's just, you need to be playing your best football right now. And he just is. I really think that this is why Sam Darnold, not to make it a future discussion at all at this point, but why Sam Darnold may have changed some minds even in the building.

Because at every challenge where you say, all right, well, this is a weak point of his game and we're going to have to work around it or something. He has progressed and gotten better. And the way that he has gotten better at the line of scrimmage at the protection point, the way that he got better at making decisions to check down and throw underneath and trust Aaron Jones and trust TJ Hawkinson after the Jaguars game and all the growth that he's continued to make and throw to spots and read three on twos and things like that. It's just been so impressive to see him grow and grow to this point. I think he is a much different quarterback and he played well against Detroit. He made one mistake, played well in that

game, but I think he is a different quarterback than the Lions saw last time. I think he is. I mean, all the reasons we just mentioned, the confidence is another thing. And Sam wouldn't go near that. You know, O'Connell said you'd have to ask Sam, but I imagine he's a more confident quarterback this time around. Donald was asked that. He just goes, I'll just say this. It's fun, you know, but being fun or having fun, excuse me, can mean being more confident. You know, you're not going to have a ton of fun if you aren't feeling confident in what you're doing. And if he's having fun out there in these huge games, these huge moments, the biggest games he's ever played in in the NFL, certainly now, that is something that shows his comfort level with the system, the command, his targets. And we're not even talking about, you know, one of his third or fourth options and a guy like TJ Hawkinson, who facing his former team for the first time since they ended his year and derailed his half a year this year with those two torn ligaments last year.

He's the third or fourth option is barely getting talked about, is barely even getting thrown to. And to have that is like a check down option or whatever. A got to have it third down option is just an incredible setup for this offense and for Darnold and the way he's playing. How much does the run game matter to you? The Vikings went out in free agency and they signed a big game football player in Aaron Jones. And my gracious, was he that last year for them? Was it five straight 100 yard games for Green Bay, that is. And so the Vikings were happy to bring him in for football games like this.

I think Aaron Jones has had a tremendous year for the Vikings overall. They could not have asked for anything better. I mean, when you're doing a projection of Aaron Jones for the season, you're probably marking him down for 13 games, 14 games, and maybe some regression from where he was last year. And instead, he's been available the whole season long. He has been really good in those short underneath passing game options for him. I think he's got way more yards than you would have expected from this offensive line at times. And this is a D line that doesn't have some of their

guys that stuff the run. They don't have some of the linebackers. I think there's a major opportunity here to control the game with Aaron Jones in ways that we haven't really seen them do a lot this season. No, because that's not how they want to play. They still, as much as they love Aaron Jones, he's got 1400 yards. He's only 88 yards shy of a new career high and yards from scrimmage. You mentioned the full season. That's just the third time in his career he's done that. It's been an excellent year for him, but they want to chuck it downfield, like we've talked about. I mean, Kevin O'Connell wakes up wanting to throw for 300 yards.

That's what he wants to do in this game, and he wants to break it open. I do think, though, O'Connell's mentioned his areas of growth and how, like in that Jags game, he's like, I think I would have tried to throw us out of that hole that we were in and not being able to score. They were down, I think, seven to six going into that fourth quarter. He's like, I would have typically, I think a younger me would have tried to throw us out of that. This is going to be a real test for like in close games like this one should be. Are you going to turn to Aaron Jones, lean on him, give Detroit a little bit of their own medicine of like extending drives, controlling the clock, giving your defensive breather,

kind of choking the life out of the opposing offense when you flatly don't give them the ball. That's what we need to see if he can do. And if he's going to fight his own kind of pull to be that former quarterback who wants to just throw, throw, throw. Well, that's what I've been thinking about is if you score fast, are you playing into their hands a little, which I know sounds weird, but if you score fast and then you're always trying to score fast and then you fail, are you giving up multiple 10 minute drives to the Detroit lions? And then that has been an Achilles heel of the Vikings to be on the field for too long defensively, and then getting to the end of games and they're worn out. And we've sort of seen that bear out kind of time and time again throughout the season and made things a little more dicey

than it needed to be in some weeks. That's where I wonder if there can be patience. And I went back to the Atlanta at the end of the game where they get the 98-yard drive, mostly just by running and running and running in one bootleg. I think that they have to draw some inspiration from that if it's working, if they're able to continue to stay on the ground, because every 25-yard catch from Justin Jefferson is a major positive. Of course it is. It's getting you closer to scoring and no one wants

to give up 25-yard passes. But if you score four plays, two minutes, ball goes back to them, they're on the field all day early in the game, that can add up over the distance of a game. And I think we're talking about one that's going to be close at the end. So they might have an advantage there if one team has held the ball all day and the other team has scored quickly. Yeah, the key is there if you're calling plays, which we'll never do in NFL games, but if we're putting ourselves in those shoes,

it's adjusting to what they're giving you. And if the Vikings can steal a couple big plays early in this game, O'Connell's shown that if a defense adjusts and starts backing off, he'll coach Sam to start taking what they're giving you and kind of be more of that methodical slow pitch offense in a way that they haven't always been they've hunted big plays before and it hasn't worked out that's where Darnold's advancement in the progressions and development with being comfortable checking it down is critical that for every three route pattern that goes 25 yards down, O'Connell will budget in one or two guys that are short for Darnold to just toss the ball to.

And they've done a good job of managing those kinds of give and takes where we do want to hunt the big play, but we also need to keep the ball and the clock moving. I'm sure if the Lions, who have been susceptible to big plays, susceptible to yards through the air, also susceptible to defensive pass interferences, as we need to talk about, That's all part of it. And O'Connell knows that our best chance, the Vikings' best chance for the biggest play, even if it's not a completion, could very well be a penalty down the field. And I very much imagine that's going to be a core tenant of what they continue to do on Sunday. It's just, if the Lions sell out like the Jags did, or like other defenses have done to take

that kind of stuff away, will Darnold, will O'Connell be able to manage that together, because they both have to do it, to string together those long drives that you're talking about? Because I don't think they're going to go into this game and say, you know what? This is a 30-carry Aaron Jones game. We're getting under center. We're just going to go full Mike Zimmer on the bit. I do not expect that to happen.

They're going to continue to try to win how they've been winning, and much of that is by being the most explosive passing game in the NFL. All right, here's what I want to know from you. What ancillary storyline or matchup are you overly focused on? What side story to this game are you thinking about way more than you should be i'll tell you what i know it is for a lot of vikings fans the kicker of course it's the kicker anytime you know the kicker misses a couple the week before they're gonna go into this with an irrational fear of a kicker who's been great and really until last

week he had been fine since he came back i think he missed his first one and then it made five in a row or something and then uh he hits the post you're not missing by a whole lot they're short on 57 you can miss by just a little i don't know if that's irrational though because i mean reichert had been so perfect before but he also hit from what was it 60 or 58 or something in seattle it was 58 yeah which is a much tougher kick so i don't know what what i'm supposed to think about that no one can predict where kickers are going but i know that that's what the fan base is worried about going into this game as a side story do you have one so you're asking me what am i what, what fear do I have for this game

that's borderline irrational? It doesn't have to be fear. It more just has to be like a matchup or storyline, or it could be a concern. That's borderline irrational. Yes, that you're thinking about far too much to the level of being borderline irrational. It might be the run defense.

It might be how much I've spent the entire week, because I did this last week with Josh Jacobs, where I said, that's all that mattered, that's all that mattered. And yet, what ended up mattering a lot was how they played man coverage and didn't give Jordan Love a lot of places to throw the ball. And I think Love didn't play that great until the very end of that game. I think that's part of it. But how they played in coverage ended up being a much bigger factor than I anticipated, because they had to stop Jacobs, and they largely did. And I think the Vikings have to stop Gibbs and they largely do. But as I just talked about, like they were in that Buffalo game in part, large only because Jared Goff is throwing five touchdown passes. This offense can shift into one that will just air it out and light up the scoreboard through the air without maybe much of a need for your run game. This offense can still run play action without successfully running the ball and still have it work to effect much more than even your average offense. So it's Laporta, it's St. Brown, it's Jamison Williams, it's all these weapons they have in the passing game that I might be overlooking by spending so much time talking about their running back because yes,

that is how Detroit wants to win, but they're going to treat every down or series of downs like it's four downs they're they're probably going to be as aggressive as they've ever been in managing a game calling a game and that involves airing it out sometimes and trusting golf to win and I think that might be an area where because of how much time I spend on Gibbs I'm overlooking okay that's great analysis but I want you to go deeper oh I want you to go deeper because that's still like a pretty common matchup run game. I got, I got one for you. I am irrationally focused on Kevin O'Connell wanting to show Ben Johnson that he can make a trick play. Wow. Okay. This is, it's been my frustration, frustration my biggest criticism which really tells you how

good kevin o'connell's been this is how you win coach of the year when the biggest thing someone's worried about is your lack of effectiveness and trick plays but truly they have not had a successful trick play since he took over remember the point oh sorry the playoff game remember throwing to kirk in the playoff, having Delvin Cook throw a football, winning against San Francisco and all they need is a field goal and Ty Chandler's cocking the throw. They don't even trust Ty Chandler to run with it, much less do they trust him to throw it. The strange decisions that have been made.

And this one, I am feeling Kevin O'Connell trying to throw a pass to Walter Rouse or something. I, it just saw some trick plays on the way from Kevin O'Connell. That is just gotta be a little bit of machismo. Hey, you get all your attention for your little jet sweeps and your little hook and ladders and your little throw into Dan Skipper and all that.

I'll show you. We'll throw our fattest guy we've got. I'm just concerned. That's a great one. I hadn't even thought about that because you're right. We've seen some really questionable decisions of like, even in games where they're not necessarily struggling on offense and they still kind of dig into the bag a little bit. And when you go back and look at the trick plays, I did this about a month ago. they had run at that point, seven of them. You can only count two of the seven as successes and all of them, I think all but one had happened near the red zone, like it's scoring territory. Like it just, once they get near that 20 to 30 opponent yard range, they start thinking, how can we just kind of throw up a little, little lob,

a little alley-oop into the end zone for this one and maybe that's where they overthink it but um i love that i would i guess if i got to get like paranoid on the bit and really try to figure out something um boy what would it be because i i do think the kicker is up there man the kicker is up there uh the punter you talk about trick plays. They like to throw with the punter and haven't done it in some time, and they've wanted to do it and keep going back to it. I feel like that's one. How about this?

How about, after I filibuster it, the turnover that loses them the game not coming from Sam Darnold, that all the talk being about Sam Darnold being 18 touchdowns to two interceptions over the last seven games, controlling the ball, being a great game manager, not giving the ball away. Turnovers have obviously been so key to how they won these games by being second in the NFL in takeaways. What if Aaron Jones's fumble problem comes back at the worst possible time? Because I was on Packer Radio this week, Green Bay Radio, because they're very interested in this team as well. And they keep

asking, Aaron fumbles at the wrong times. We know this. And we saw him go through four fumbles in three games for the Vikings earlier this year. He's been great since then. No issues there. But what if it's somebody not named Sam Darnold that coughs this up? Okay, I'll throw you one more. I like that. I like that. I'll throw you one more. Zebras. He blame on the refs already which team do i cover they two of the last three years the vikings have the best net yardage in penalties in the nfl in 2022 and and currently and i think that a major reason is veteran players commit fewer penalties another reason is justin jefferson draws so many of them that you're always on the plus side, but they're not a very penalized team. So if you're into the

conspiracy though, does the NFL prefer Dan Campbell at the front of the line for the playoffs? Script writers. Ah, that's not one I'm really irrationally, but I am actually fascinated though by the referees in this game, because the Detroit lions may have no other choice. And we've seen them do this under Aaron Glenn, then to just grab Justin Jefferson every time and hope the jets played this defense and it kind of worked just grabbing hope. And you know what? We'll give up 50, 60 yards of penalties, but we'll save a hundred yards that he would have smoked us on. And I think they are going to dare the referees to flag them time and time and time and time again, because eventually you just get tired of doing it and you start to let a little bit more go. And I think that's just human nature, but the, they, they also feel the, Hey, look, this one's going to set records for how many people are watching. Nobody wants to

watch 18 flags on the lions. Is this one going to be penalty free? Cause I think that benefits Detroit. Hey man, I would, I actually would be fine with that if the refs didn't make themselves such a big part of the game, but NFL officials love making themselves a big part of the game. So I don't know if that's going to be a deterrent. The Sunday night lights, the big game. I feel like this is actually a time where who's refereeing it. I don't know. I was going to make a Hockley joke, Sean Hockley, you know, like his dad brings out the big guns and wants to be star of the show. I just wouldn't be shocked if officials are not afraid of the moment. They're going to stand up to the moment. But to your point, if you get by the third or fourth quarter and they've already

called three or four of these things, and now it's a questionable call that I don't know about, but we're just going to let it stand, even though Jefferson got totally mugged or something like that. I could see that being a thing because we have seen it work against certain crews. We've seen certain crews also be very flag heavy. Also, this is Ford Field. This is a home. It's going to be a home crowd or obviously a road crowd environment for the Vikings where the officials are going to be standing there hearing the Lions fans on every single call and non-call. And by the end of the game, we know how that can wear one way or the other on certain crews. So I think it's worthwhile pointing out just when it comes to the pass interference stuff, the Vikings lead the league, obviously, in generating those pass interference yards.

Jefferson's number one in the league. I think Addison's like number three or four individually in terms of pass interference yardage. And the Lions, as you mentioned, are also among the league leaders in getting flagged for that kind of stuff. And if they want to play more man coverage like they seem to be doing, as you're saying, it lends itself to being more grabby as well. So it's going to be a storyline one way or the other. Lions fans will be complaining if there

are too many calls. Vikings fans will be complaining if there aren't enough. But something to watch that could have a major impact on the game. And I'll throw out one more thing that sometimes comes to mind for me when these big games happen. You've got a lot of things you're irrationally worried about. Just going to say, I'm going to get everything off the chest here, everything off the notebook. The league likes when these games are close. I'm just saying that they like it to be close.

I think it's going to be close, and I think if the Vikings get ahead in the game, there may be some penalties, there may be some things that bring back plays that would put the game away or whatever. We'll see how it goes. Do you have the script already? I have the script.

You already know how it goes? I know what the score is going to be. It's going to be 38-35 Vikings-Will Reichard game-winning field goal from the Lion. That's what's going to happen. Wow, you really want to shut up people who are worried about the kicker, don't you? You're predicting a game-winning Will Reichard kick to win this game. Also, I just want to say that I spent a summer as an umpire one time, and I have the deepest respect for officials.

My goodness. It's a very hard job, so no disrespect. What do you think? I think the Vikings win this game. I picked against them last week. I kept picking against them in certain parts throughout this nine-game win streak, and it would be futile and dumb to do that at this point. Yes, they could lose the game, but that's not the point.

This team is on fire. They're rolling. The defense is relatively healthy. So is the offense. And we just talked about how well Sam Darnold is playing and developed. I think the Vikings win a close game too. Let's go 40 to 36. Shootout City in Detroit.

Thank you, Andrew, uh, for a wonderful year of these breakdowns. I don't know how many weeks there will be left of these, but, you'll be on them previewing next week off. We might not off,

but yeah, but we might, well, I don't know. I guess we'll, uh, we'll find out, but however long the season goes,

you'll be doing the final word word on vikings and opponent whoever it may be so really looking forward to this one and since this is our last uh commentary before thanks everybody for a great week of listening and uh try to enjoy the game you freaks thanks everybody