Purple Insider - a Minnesota Vikings and NFL podcast - Star Tribune's Andrew Krammer gives Vikings the edge over Rams

Episode Date: January 12, 2025

Matthew Coller and Star Tribune's Andrew Krammer break down all the factors in Vikings-Rams playoff 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 inside TCO Performance Center just days away from the Minnesota Vikings traveling to Arizona to play against the Los Angeles Rams. Let me ask you this question to start the show, Andrew. How much are you factoring what we saw last week in Detroit into your analysis of what you expect from the Minnesota Vikings this week against Los Angeles Rams? Yeah, I anticipated this conversation with you and I,

because as we've done these over the whole year, the one difference we've had about Sam Darnold was what's it going to look like under the really bright lights? And so to that question, I, you got to take it into account. You got to take into account that this was the biggest game, certainly biggest, yeah, biggest, he's never played in the playoffs. So biggest game of his NFL career up to that point. And it did not go well. And it was for a lot of factors, the guys he was throwing to included. But Sam obviously didn't play well. You don't go 18 of 41 without a lot going wrong. And I think when coaches talk about mindset affecting mechanics and all this stuff,

I do think that's part of it. And Wes Phillips, the offensive coordinator, mentioned this week about how, I'm glad we went through this before we got into the single elimination tournament to get a taste of what that's like. And I think he's talking about the whole team, but I also think he's talking about Sam as much as anything. So I do put that on Sam in terms of it seemed too big for him that moment. And if he can bounce back, if he can show the resiliency he's shown all season in terms of bouncing back from bad games or from bad plays within games, I think he's capable of it. The question is, is he going to do it or is it going to look much like it did on Sunday night? So there's no doubt that he played about as bad as he could play. In fact, it was one of the lower completion percentages of his entire

career, which there were some pretty rough games for the jets and the Carolina Panthers going back. But for me, one game in a 17 game NFL season, including games at Seattle, where he came through clutch game against the green Bay Packers who had been playing really good football. And it's in the bright lights is the Tom Brady slot and everything. And he goes crazy in that game and plays phenomenally well. And they carry him on the shoulders. Like we can't forget that those things happened in the clutch moments. And I really felt like when Wes Phillips was talking this week about how it went wrong

for Darnold, he said, everybody takes turns when you have a game like that, where everything just goes wrong. And I thought that was absolutely true. Because when you went back through that Detroit game, you saw Darnold overthrow some balls. But then you saw the left guard get beat and allow some pressures. You saw the line struggling to sort out some of the blitzes. You saw Jefferson very uncharacteristically drop a touchdown pass.

You saw Hawkinson with a play or two that maybe he could have made. And it really was. Then the kicker kicks it out of bounds at the end of the half and misses a key field goal that may have made things different in that game, just as it seemed like maybe Darnold was starting to get rolling. So it was, I think, a combination of everything. But if Sam Darnold plays like that again, they will be eliminated without question. So how are we looking at his chances to bounce back against this Rams defense? Yeah, the Rams are a pretty underrated defense that since they've lost in Buffalo, was it 44, 42 or something like that, they have not given up a ton of points. Now they haven't played much of

anybody outside of a Cardinals offense that they know really well. But they've held everybody, I think, to under 10 points since then. They've been one of the better defenses in the second half of the season at holding scoring down. The problem is they've given up a lot of rushing yards over the weeks. They've given up 200 rushing yards to Saquon Barkley, given up hundreds of yards every single week. I think there's only four or five weeks they didn't let a team go over 100. Aaron Jones was one of them that they didn't let go over 100. He only had 58 yards, I think, on 19 carries in that game, a really weird game in which they couldn't run the ball, yet Sam played pretty well in LA last time. So if it's put on him again, he's going to have to bounce back in a way

that we've seen him, as you mentioned, play before in big moments. He's going to have to carry this offense if they can't get that running game going like they couldn't last time in Los Angeles. They've got a good front between Jared Verse, between Kobe Turner, Fisk, a young kid they have in the interior. They've got a lot of good talent that could take advantages. As you mentioned, an offensive line for the Vikings that's just been so up and down continues to be up and down. And when you don't have those two guys on the edges that you can set it and forget it, when Cam Robinson's one of those guys on the left side that will be up and down like the rest of them, it just adds an element for Darnold that he's got to be so mentally calm with everything going on. And we saw it in Seattle with the touchdown game winner to Jefferson.

We saw it was at Atlanta, the 50-yarder to to Jefferson too, where he can buy time in the pocket when he's, he's got that calmness to him. He can make those plays regardless of what's going on up front. And they need that from him. I think they're going to need it from him on Monday night. And that's what I mean about making it while the moment was too big for him in Detroit, which I, I mean, I think was, was true, but throughout the season, even when they played Arizona, when they need a fourth down conversion and so forth to go win that game, Sam Darnold's there for them. So at every turn, he has been that guy that they've been able to rely on,

whether it was big games or big moments. And then this one happens and then it's well. But to circle back to your point about the Rams defense, I think one of the hardest things in football is to evaluate a defense because there's so many moving parts and styles make fights. And I think that was so clear against Detroit where Detroit had struggled a lot against some other teams without Alex Anzalone, who my bad, I did not expect him to be the complete difference maker in that game but he really was with his blitzing he played so physically uh i think after that game tj hockinson

may have filed charges against anzalone he was he was like shadowing tj at moments yeah right i mean he played so physically against him uh i didn't realize that there would be such a domino effect of them getting him back, but they were a different defense. The other thing too was Z'Darrius Smith in big games. I mean, that guy is an absolute beast. I think we probably didn't factor that, that he would be as amped up as anybody. And he dominated Cam Robinson in that game. And the interior was just bad matchups for them. So how are theams going to match up is really the question rather than well they kept the jets to this many points or the 49ers in a monsoon to that many points or even arizona had almost 400 yards and then kyler murray threw it right

into the helmet of trey mcbride for an interception at the end of the game right Right. So trying to figure out, well, they're playing better recently, but they gave up 40 something to Buffalo, but are they good? Are they not good? The way I look at it is this game ends up being pretty simple. If Jared verse and that defensive line destroys the Vikings offensive line, the Vikings will not win. I really think that it comes down to that singular matchup of verse versus Robinson and the defensive line. And if they, they win and crush that matchup, the Vikings will not have a chance to really execute their offense. I think important guys though, too, are Darius Williams, the corner Cameron curl, their safety. They've got a lot of young players who are playing well in the secondary too. And it took the lions having good secondary play. It took the Lions having Anzalone, as you mentioned.

There was one play with him and Z'Darrius Smith where Z'Darrius bumps Aaron Jones on a wheel route in the red zone. And that's where Darnold wanted to go with the ball, and he locked onto that side. And the fact that Anzalone had kind of tipped Z'Darrius off before the play of like, hey, don't forget to nudge Aaron Jones out of there. That's the impact of a veteran linebacker who you saw have, as you mentioned, just total control of what they could do. I think that's important, too. I know you're talking about as far as if there's one most important matchup. But as you mentioned, the reason why it's so hard to break this down is because it's

the cohesion of all 11. It's how they all work together. And this Rams group, they were young. They struggled at first. They've had bad moments in some of these games in the middle of the year too but they've come together in a way that has helped catapult them to this eight and two record in the last 10 games they've been very very sound overall in what they've done and I think that's going to matter as much as anything and if that defensive line that you're talking about if that fronts and makes those impactful plays the way that

the Vikings offensive line has let some teams do, it could be huge because Darnold didn't play great, for instance, like in that Colts game. And yet, even though he gets strip sacked and that huge play taken back by Grover Stewart, you know, they were still able to fight through and win that game. And I just, I think Matthew Stafford's the kind of guy that might get you into a shootout more so than Joe Flacco. So the secondary for the Rams versus the Vikings wide receivers is an interesting matchup because if you look at the full season, the full picture, the Rams secondary is not very good by, by all of the full season metrics. Now they've played better recently, which sort of leads us to, are they the version that's going into the playoffs

that played inferior offenses and weapons to the Vikings like Kyler Murray and a rookie wide receiver are not Jefferson Addison Hawkinson and even Jalen Naylor I think has played really great football these last couple of weeks I think that that is the Vikings biggest advantage is against the secondary of the Rams and if they can give Sam Darnold time to throw, Justin Jefferson is going to win. And I'm actually really curious too, about whether the Rams start to use some blitzes or not because Detroit won on a lot of those blitzes, but the Rams did not blitz Sam Darnold last time. He played pretty well in that game. They've got the front four,

but then they just watched Detroit do it. So are they going to do it or are they not going to do it? And if they do, then there will be opportunities for Addison Jefferson to get favorable matchups that they're really not used to getting. Yeah. The thing was Darnold had played so well against the blitz all year. He was one of the highest rated passers against five plus rushers. And that's just kind of why it was shocking the way the Lions played it. The Lions blitzed over half the time in the first meeting against him. So they kind of knew what to expect.

This was on steroids. This was like a game plan just cranked up to the max. Aaron Glenn putting the throttle down and just sending everything. And I think NFL next gen stats had the fact that it was the most zero all out blitz as a team has sent in a single game all season. I don't think the Rams are going to do that. I do not think they're going to carbon copy that. They're going to try and play the way they've succeeded,

which I think overall their numbers, they're not a heavy blitz team in general. And as you mentioned, they didn't do it against the Vikings. So I think they're going to do what has kind of got them there, and then they're going to rely on that offense, that Rams offense, to do what it did against the Vikings defense too. So I'm not sure what to expect. Asking Vikings players, they don't know what to expect because that was the question I had talking to Brian O'Neill.

Like, do you think they're going to just carbon copy this next week because of how poorly it went for you guys? He said, we can't answer that. We have no idea, but we have to prepare for it. You have to prepare for another team trying to do some similar things and i just think no one in the league both offensively and defensively under dan campbell is as aggressive as the detroit lions are so i don't think you're gonna have to run into that style again which is gonna be probably good news for the vikings now a big question for the vikings here coming out of that game is in the red zone. Uh, and, uh, just doing my

Friday mailbag the other day, probably five, six different questions about running in the red zone. Uh, my answer is they just can't do it. Are they doing something wrong? Is there something that they should be doing that they're not? I mean,, I'm a little bit of two minds when it comes to this. I mean, one is your offensive line is built with pretty solid pass protectors overall, not last week, but for the whole season, they're 14th by PFF, even after getting clobbered in that Lions game and pass protection is pretty solid. And they were even a little higher earlier in the season. But in, as far as run blocking goes, it's a lot of Aaron Jones having to sort through the mess and find five yards, five, find seven yards. That's been their running game this year. And when you get down into the condensed area and they're loading up the box and everything,

they just don't have the power to push people back. Also though, I can't say that I've been wowed by any creative looks in the run game. The run game has always felt like an obligation to Kevin O'Connell's offense. Well, it's first down the red zone. I guess, I guess we'll run. I'll take out the trash and do the laundry, but then, then I get to go play out, you know, in the yard and run my crazy routes for Justin Jefferson and stuff that that's how it's always felt. And I don't know if that changes here. I don't know if I have some answer to say, well, here's what you should be doing. off or a little like some sort of misdirection of a fake one way pitch another way a little eye candy just something to get the defense moving because a lot of times they're just standing there and they overpower moving forward and the running back doesn't have much of a chance yeah we talk about when west phillips talks about every little thing kind of went wrong or everybody had

took turns going wrong that's that's the run They had three, just three red zone runs in that last game on 14 red zone plays. And those four drives in the red zone, obviously people will say that's what lost them the game. You score just six points on those trips, game's over. Those three red zone running plays. One of them that was from the 18 yard line, just a one yard game by Jones, Washington back. It was his fault. Blake Brandel gets pushed back a little bit by Reeder, but he's got the angle on him. Jones cuts so far. He goes so far wide to set up his cutback. It didn't work with the guard. Maybe it's the guard's fault for getting pushed back too far, but the running back did not adjust. To me, that's on the running back. Another one, Garrett Bradbury did not assist to his right to

help on a defensive tackle with Dalton Reisner and that guy I think I was reader again breaks through and makes the play just bad teamwork on that front and then I think the one with Cam Akers where he had to bounce it outside was one word they had a bad combo block between Cam Robinson and Josh Oliver to me that looked like Robinson's fault it just it bounces around of who's screwing up and sometimes it's the running back and then you talk about misdirection there was another play where it was a passing play they tried to send jefferson one way motioning him on a jet sweep and they send aaron jones on the opposite way to try and get the defense's attention to commit to jefferson amik robertson who passes off jefferson doesn't follow him

makes an incredible play tackling jones for three yards they get the three yard line or something like that and then they stalled out from there So they try things and it just doesn't work. And then one time they hurried up at the line and ran man, a man beating crossing concept against zone that they were clearly not expecting. They were clearly expecting man. One time they put Jefferson in the backfield and man expecting man to match him up on a linebacker lines, drop out into zone. Like they tried so many things that just the lions had an answer to, And whether it's pre-snap checks and the Lions saying, oh, let's adjust to zone now, whatever it is, they got got both in coaching, both in execution and play in the red zone. So I love that you brought that up because it was such an incredible and incredibly important

part of that game in a spot where they've succeeded thoroughly throughout this season. Few passers have thrown more touchdowns in the red zone than Sam Darnold. He has succeeded through scheme, through execution, through all of it. And for it to go so awry the way it did, it wasn't just on him. It was on the fact that they couldn't run it because they didn't have a counter. But then it was also on, obviously, Jefferson dropping a touchdown, all these different things, coaching, not having the right answers. So it'd be so great if they had a run game, Matt, to your point, but they're not going to do it because they're not good at it. I think the creativity part has been lacking. I totally agree with you on that because

you look at teams like the Chiefs or I'm trying to think of the Ravens, the Eagles, all these good red zone running teams. They've got great talent, but they also have good scheme and good creativity to counter when a team knows what's coming. And it seemed like the lions, for instance, knew what was coming and the Vikings just had no counter. Folks, it's a wonderful time of year in football, and there's a perfect dad hack that I want to tell you about that will get your kid to love Minnesota football the way that you do. It is called Future Fan Sports. At Christmas time, I gave this to one of my friends, and it worked like a charm. Future Fans helps little kids become big football fans by embedding the rules of football into parallel games and activities that make it very easy for a kid to understand.

You get a box full of different games and a playbook that guides you along. For example, instead of trying to explain downs, they have a beanbag toss game with things like four tries or six points for a touchdown. All those things connect through a storybook that guides the entire future fan experience. The playbook also has lots of different mini games like word searches and bingo, where you check off all the different things that happen in a football game it's only 49.99 at futurefans.com and you can use the code purple to get 10 off that's futurefans.com code purple and unlock a lifetime of memories together i also think that their best run option in the red zone in the low red if you will you drop that

at a press conference this week too low red i did and i got a i would save unsatisfactory answer from the offensive coordinator about the running it was like well there's no run plays against certain stuff and you're like i think there is probably if you can push them anyway so uh i didn't know you know i'm not gonna get into it with them but i thought fight west there there are other teams that run in they've been doing it my whole life i watched like emmett smith right in there marcus allen just like that they've been doing marcus allen used to jump over the pile like can no one jump uh i think their best running option is actually Sam Darnold in the red zone. And I think that if you're playing a game in the middle of the season

against the Cardinals, you don't really want Sam Darnold in the red zone, lowering his head and smashing into the end zone. But it's the playoffs. You might want to use that. And actually, if you go back and watch carolina because i did this when they signed uh darnold in 20 in 2022 at the end of that season when he played well carolina used him as a runner sometimes i mean he is a a big powerful dude with some running chops and they would use it sometimes in the red zone put him in the shotgun do a cam

newton type of get him running into the end zone i don't think it's a bad idea not at all to get him pushing i just don't want brandon powell tush pushing don't do that don't do that but but this goes into they failed a couple times in the red zone against the rams the last time and they are outmanned on the d line and how they deal with that in the red zone we We know this team can move the football. They've moved the football all year long. You have to be able to score on those plays or you're not going to come out of Glendale with a win.

No, they're not. They're not. You've got to be able to score touchdowns. Stafford threw four touchdowns on this defense last time. I doubt it's going to be that many this time, but it's at least probably going to be a couple. And the Vikings have won with takeaways. So the only NFL team that took the ball away every single week, they had at least one every week. Stafford doesn't turn the ball over. The part of their, I think they went eight and two the last 10 games. Part of that has been him being so hyper-efficient, even lacking for big

numbers. He's been incredibly efficient and played game managing winning football in a way that, as we were talking about earlier, he did not do in Detroit. So he's become that kind of quarterback that's aged very, very well, even through the issues that he's had physically. So you're going to have to score to keep up. I don't necessarily think this is going to be a 45 to 40 kind of game, but I think it's going to be more 24-20 that you're not going to kick your way out of this John Parker Romo like you're in Jacksonville. You're going to have to go out there and score touchdowns. That's why I think we'll see fourth down attempts. I think we'll see. It'd be great to see some of that creativity with Sam Darnold in the run game, because I wonder where that has been. Is that just

part of the fact that that's not part of their offense? Because when we saw Josh Dobbs come in here last year, we saw how poorly they integrated that into their their offense and of course he gets hurt in that game in Denver and the few times they were trying to run him but O'Connell talked about the difficulty of making that part of your system when it just has not been with a immobile quarterback and Kirk Cousins and then to my surprise with a mobile guy in Darnold they haven't really tried to incorporate that at all. Just one QB draw from the two yard line. That's all I'm asking for. Or maybe maybe a Rhett Ellison end around.

Hey, it worked once. So on the offensive side for the Vikings, though, I think that despite the Rams playing better recently, some of that is context driven. They played the Jets, the Jets. Yeah. You know, one of the worst teams in the league. And it was raining in the game that they played against San Francisco. Brock Purdy overthrew a touchdown pass or under through or something. A couple of just bad throws by him in the, in the rain. So I don't think that they are a defense that the Vikings should be terrified of save for the strip sack, the hits of Darnold that throw off his timing. And we know that he's going to hang on to the ball in the pocket over on the other side

of the ball. Stafford is a tough guy to blitz like crazy because he is smart as heck. He gets rid of the football super fast. And when they get it into the hands of Puka Nakua, that guy is a fullback. He is Mike Allstott out there sometimes the way he can break tackles and I did think it was interesting that Brian Flores acknowledged that they did not expect Puka to play last time sounded like maybe a little excuse I'm just I don't know uh but this time they do know Puka Nakua is going to play and he is one of the best receivers

in the entire NFL. This matchup here of how they get the ball out of Stafford's hands into Puka Nakua, how the Vikings play against him. Do they do something they usually don't do, which is just straight double somebody? We don't see them do that, but they do practice against Justin Jefferson all summer long. How do you think they approach the duo of Stafford and Nakua? Yeah, first of all, do not disparage Brian Flores for speaking the truth. I mean, it might be an excuse, but at least it's honest that the ultimate coach lie is

how we expected everything. We expected everything they did, and it's just all on us. Well, no, that's never true. There's always some things you didn't expect expect like zone coverage from the Lions in the red zone or Pukunukuwa coming back after one practice on a short week nobody expected that I think that was the most obvious thing he could have said I'm glad he said it I think they expect Pukunukuwa to play this week the question is can Stephon Gilmore Shaq Griffin and Byron Murphy and Cam Bynum tackle better than they did in that game in LA or that they did in Detroit, speaking of Bynum. So I think they're going to need those

guys to rally regardless if it's a double team, regardless if it's kind of a double team, one and a half team, whatever they want to call it, shading a guy toward his side. You don't seem to have to worry about Cooper Cup the same way that other teams have had to worry about him. He has not been part of their game plan very much. I think they rested guys in week 18 because guys like him needed it really badly, being 31 years old, Stafford being 36. So Puka's the guy. It's Kyron Williams and it's Puka Nakua. And I wouldn't be shocked if, like you're mentioning, them kind of cheat coverage over his way some way or another, but then it comes down to execution. It comes down to tackling. Cooper Cup might not be a great catch and run guy. He's still a hell of a run blocker. He's still going to body you up, push your defensive backs out of the way. And that's what sets up a

lot of these plays. And so I think Gilmore is going to have to play tough downhill. He made the joke back in August. He's not here to blitz. Well, you got to be here to play perimeter defense. You got to be here to, to, you know,'ve got to be here to force the runs back inside, force the screens back inside, or make some tackles at least because he did not play well in that first game in Los Angeles. So this old secondary, you talk about styles and fitting styles and making fights and all that. This old secondary got tested and got beat against Stafford last time,

and I think that is going to be one of the keys for this team, for them to show up. I do think it helps that instead of four days rest, it's eight. Yeah. And even it's like eight and a half because they're playing at night. So you get really an extra seven and a half, whatever,

you know how many days it is. It's a, it's more days than last time, but I just have this, I have two visions of that game of Puka Nakula. Number one is just him getting the ball on a screen and shredding blocks and are shredding tackles. And Stefan Gilmore this year has not really wanted to tackle. I don't blame him. They've played great defense. Why would you hurt yourself in the middle of the season and a game you're

ahead, that kind of thing, but you're going to have to kind of lay it out there for this type of game. The question for me is, if you were going to try to man up Puka Nakua, would you use Stephon Gilmore or would you use Byron Murphy? Byron Murphy is their highest graded man cover corner for this year. And he's had a few times where he's run the route for people and intercepted the ball. Uh, but the other vision I have is just Nakua and cup breaking into the middle of the field open. And that has happened so many times against Detroit and against the Rams. And I do wonder because Flores, it comes from that Belichick idea of every game's

a different game plan. Is there going to be some, instead of just too deep a lot, is there going to be some shifting to some robbing of those, uh, you know, trying to rob behind the blitzes because we know he's going to blitz. So he's not going to just be like, no, no, I'm good. He's going to send Ivan pace. He's going to send cash when he's going to send Mattel. But what I feel like they didn't do against the lions that often, and they didn't do against the Rams last time was really just try to kind of cheese them on something. Where remember when Kamu Grugier Hill just didn't play his technique at all and just intercepted a pass earlier this year because he's like, oh, I saw that route combination. So I went for it.

I think that this would be the time to try to take some risks and do something like that to to try to take, instead of keeping everything in front, rallying to the football, maybe try to jump some plays because I think you're going to have to take the ball away from the Rams in order to beat them. Yeah, and that's the fine line they have to draw because Stafford just doesn't give you many of those opportunities. And the Vikings got, neither does Goff, and the Vikings got two off Goff in part

because of how aggressive they were blitzing. It wasn't because they sat back. It was because Josh Metell they were blitzing. It wasn't because they sat back. It was because Josh Metellus was blitzing. And I can't remember who tipped the pass up. It might have been Metellus. Somebody did. Into the interception by whoever it was. Either way.

Metellus tipped it to pace. Thank you. It's a long season. And they have a lot of takeaways, to their credit. Got it all up here. Ask me about any game. Steel trap. Including from 1990.

Anyway, I think the Vikings, you're right right have to find ways to take it away i don't think they're going to change their identity though i don't think this is going to be a all sudden they're not going to sit back and try to keep everything in front of them they are going to know that the ball is going to come out quickly they are going to know like the rams did in october that they're going to try and set up those screens and those quick passes they've always wanted to get the ball out of Stafford's hands quick. You don't survive with a 36-year-old quarterback by letting him get hit a lot. But they're also going to try and max protect and throw deep in a way that they did in that game. There were moments in that game where Puka got open in the middle of the zones for 25 yards downfield. That's the kind of stuff that

beats this team when they can't beat max protection or they can't send more than the Rams or the opponent can handle. So I still expect them to blitz. I expect them to vary things a lot in what they do. You mentioned the shadowing and all that with Gilmore or maybe matching on Pooker, doubling him, whatever they do. I do not expect it to be predictable. I expect them to change on third downs, their, their tendencies and what they're doing. I don't expect them to pin even Byron Murphy on him because that makes him too easy to block out and then get after your other older guys in the secondary. So Brian's going to mix it up. They're going to vary a lot of what they do. We've seen it all season. It's just a question of in those moments, can Stafford get a read on what that is? And then can he get the ball out quickly and have his guys break some tackles because that is what ended up beating it that is what ended up losing the game for the vikings in in la was the fact that they couldn't get the rams off the field they couldn't stop puka from just catching and running okay so we have to go to practice shortly so i want a rapid fire through some things here with you some Some ancillary factors. Remember last week when we were talking about things we were irrationally

concerned about for the Vikings? I guess it wasn't irrational with the refs and how the Lions grabbed onto them. But ancillary factors, things that will not be the most obvious keys to the game but could play a role. How about Will Reichardt? I would not be concerned if he just missed a field goal. I mean, I have 52. It's tough, you know, miss hitting a kickoff. That thing's on a tee. It's not moving. There's no one around you and you're the best kicker. What? I mean, that to me was a all right. I'm pushing the button and saying that I'm a little concerned about what's going on with Will Reichard. It wasn't even the miss. The miss was bad, but they kind of screwed with him before. I don't know what happened there with the refs resetting the ball. And I thought

that that messed up his timing, but when it came to not being able to kick it off correctly, that is very concerning to me about just where he, every time he trots on the field, I'm going to wonder wonder is he okay out there uh how do you feel about the confidence in the kicker wasn't this the second straight week he did that didn't he have so he said two penalties one was out of bounds i don't remember the order one was out of bounds one was at the 21 it failed to hit the landing zone i think that might have been the previous weeks or maybe that was seattle either way he's done this now at least twice in recent memory and he's obviously now missed some kicks that he had not missed prior to him injuring his leg

before that Colts game. So yeah, it's concerning. It's concerning that these are the biggest games he's ever played in his life. We can talk about the SEC. We can talk about Alabama and how he's prepared for this and all that. The NFL is a different animal. And when you talk to Will, and he's not going to let on that anything gets to him or that he's got any anxiety at all, but he will tell you himself that this is what you dream of. These are the biggest moments that you dream of. And obviously this is bigger than playing in the SEC or in college football playoff games even. So I understand he's played in front of these crowds before, but you got to be concerned. It's got to go through Kevin O'Connell's mind when he's making decisions on fourth downs, in the red zone, trying to outscore Matthew Stafford

and his old mentor, Sean McVay. This all has to play into the head coach's mind when he's making these decisions. And I wouldn't be shocked that if in the slightest indication that Will is not on his game on Monday night, if that doesn't snowball into a bunch of decisions that lead to the Vikings maybe being more aggressive because overall in fourth downs they haven't been super aggressive they've taken the points at times and they've led in a lot of these games so that helps you do that

but you got to be aggressive in January I mean who would have thought we would have been saying like I guess they should have kept Parker Romo oh I see I'm not there I feel like you still got to trust Will and if it's a tight game and he's given you no reason to doubt him in that day, you trust him and you go with it. But he's given you enough reason in the past here that if he gives you any continued reason, there's just no reason

to say, you know what, Will, keep going out there. Daniel Jones, do you think he's going to be the backup quarterback for this game? I do. I do because this is the only guaranteed game they've got left on this schedule for them. And if Sam Darnold were to go down, I don't know who could argue that Nick Mullins gives you a better shot. The only argument would be, well, he's got such a comfort and knowledge in this system, but talent wins games. Talented

players make the plays that separate you. And Nick Mullins has shown a propensity to throw interceptions, give games away with turnovers, even wall throwing for touchdowns in 300-yard games before. So I think they would go with Daniel Jones being a more mobile guy, a more dynamic quarterback, somebody who you could probably game plan some things around a little differently than Nick, who's just very limited physically in what he can do. Also throwing the ball, the ducks he's thrown up, that he's got credit for completing these 20-yard passes. One of them was a check down that I think Aaron Jones took and ran with. The other one was just a clay pigeon he tossed up to Jones down the sideline. These are not plays that the Vikings are sitting there looking at going,

that's why he's our quarterback too. Dang it. No, the reason why O'Connell is not behind Nick Mullins and not saying, yes, he's our quarterback too, is because I think they're seriously considering or have maybe already made the decision to make Daniel Jones their second quarterback. When they got Daniel Jones, I wasn't real amped about it because I thought, why introduce anything into an environment that's different for your quarterback when your quarterback is rolling and he was at that time of course it had no effect on sam darnold who we've learned is pretty easy going most of the time except at ford field when the crowd's going crazy apparently but other than that uh the entire season sam darnold has just cruised along and has never seemed like he's had anything that bothered him. And I wouldn't expect that a different backup quarterback would either.

The only thing though, about Mullins versus Jones is, and I know he's playing for the giants and not the Vikings. And I know it's a lot of different players and Jones, when he had a decent roster around him, won a playoff game. I know all that, but there really isn't much of a statistical argument that Nick Mullins and Daniel Jones are that different. Like they both turn the ball over a lot. Uh, Daniel Jones turns the ball over a ton in, in recent years. And Nick Mullins does know the offense way better. I guess my, my point is like, I get it. And it does make sense. Cause Jones is a much more talented quarterback we see him out there we see him throwing the ball we see how huge he is enormous guy uh so it's a little different but does it if sam donald goes down does it really

change your it's like guy who's a little more talented but has had a very bad career with little knowledge of the offense guy who doesn't have a lot of talent, but knows the heck out of the offense. I don't know. I think probably screwed is the answer. So they need Sam Darnold to just keep playing. And, uh, that will give them the best chance. Uh, speaking of ancillary factors, the game is being played, not in Los Angeles, 100% the right decision by the NFL to move the game, but the Vegas line is moved in the favor of the Vikings with this game leaving Los Angeles. Do you think that the location is a factor in this football game? I think it will factor.

I think it will make it tangibly less loud in there. And this, this isn't to say the Rams are some great fan base that always gives them some incredibly loud home field advantage. It will be nothing like Ford field. It will be nothing like even Seattle who the Vikings admitted that that was louder than we thought it was going to be. Um, the Rams though, they still have fans that come out. They still fill it more than the chargers do. Um, they still do get a decent crowd there. They're not the typical fervent crowd though. That's going to be screaming at the top of their lungs. That said, there are a lot of Vikings fans that live in Arizona, a lot of snowbirds that go out there from this state that live out there seasonally. I expect that crowd to be even more Vikings heavy than it would have been in Los Angeles. Also, the Wildfires might have impacted some decisions to go to this game by Vikings fans who would have been traveling from out of state anyway. So I think the fact that it's in Arizona, it's going to be all systems go for fans who wanted to go. It might even draw some

fans out there who weren't planning to go. I think that will be a factor. It'll help Darnold. It'll help this defense and it'll probably make things a little tougher on Matthew Stafford. Yeah, I was actually thinking that there might be a number of Vikings fans just in the Southwest in general who said, well, why don't I just go over to Glendale? Because there are a lot of people from the Minnesota area and flights to Phoenix, not bad, not bad hotels to Phoenix, not bad. As we had to rebook our travel, I think that there will be a lot of people who make that trip. And if we're talking about, and it's not to disrespect Rams fans, like I think

they get a bad rap because people take over their stadium and so forth because it's a destination to travel to. I thought they did a good job of making it difficult on Darnold last time and that there probably are a lot of old school Rams fans from the Los Angeles era that are still there. But that whole area is dealing with so much. I don't know how many people are packing up the cars to travel down, maybe season ticket holders. But I mean, I just don't know that a lot of Rams fans are making this trip as much as Vikings fans might be excited to try to go help their team. Now that they have this potential for a little bit of an edge in a place that's reasonably easy to get to from Minnesota.

So I do think that these things could be a factor and it will be basically like a London game where the crowd just cheers for everything that happens and it's a neutral site. That is a big benefit for the Vikings, I think. Yeah, I would agree with you there. And also we just saw Sam not play his best when the crowd was you know down his throat uh for lack of a better phrase like that was a it was a very a hostile environment in detroit that that city obviously desperately wanted that um much like that city deserves to so i think this will be a more comforting place for sam that if he has a bad player too it's not going to be so amplified

in there the way that it was last sunday night And even I wonder about, and I don't know, like there's so many people involved, the coaches and the players and whatever, but the players in Los Angeles, the coaches, they got to have a lot on their minds this week. So, I mean, they were sending guys home early because there were fires in certain areas where they live and that's got to be a huge distraction for them this week. So I guess we'll just have to find out how that plays out who do you think wins this football game are we doing this next week i think we are which i'm sorry vikings fans if you're if you've listened to this every week with me you're probably thinking god just pick against him please pick against him because i've been wrong every time i have and i picked him to win last week and I was wrong. So I'm sorry, but I'm going to pick them to win.

I think this move for football purposes is something that was good for the Vikings, obviously good for the NFL to not take up emergency resources in Los Angeles either. And I think that'll help them though on the field. I think this team has the right mindset to bounce back from this game in a way that other Vikings teams, I don't think were prepared or suited to do this. You hear the word mature a lot from players and coaches about the mindset of this team, and I think they need it to bounce back from a loss like that. And I think the stories about the 2021 Rams Super Bowl and trying to

invoke that, that's a little overblown. I think those Rams had a lot going for them that this team might not right now, but you've talked about the parallels to a potential Super Bowl run for this team. I do at least think they get out of round one. I think this Rams team is on fumes a little bit. They just rested their guys. That to me sends the wrong kind of message about where they're at. I think if they were feeling good about how they were playing, they would have kept playing and would have tried to secure the number three seed that they do not have right now. So I think they needed a rest to try to get their best fight up for whoever they were going to face.

And I think the Vikings are going to get this rematch. I'm going to go 24-20 Vikings. And then who knows after that? Maybe we're going to Philly again. Philly or Detroit. Yeah, but at least if you're going going to Glendale you can bring your horns would not do it even Detroit sort of proved uh maybe not the best idea to get up in all of your Viking gear and go to an opposing stadium but anyway so I think that they will uh survive this

game and then after that it's going to get tough but I think about 2019 and how when the Vikings lost at the end of the season to Green Bay I mean we just declared them dead it's going to get tough. But I think about 2019 and how when the Vikings lost at the end of the season to Green Bay, I mean, we just declared them dead. It's over this season. They shouldn't even get on the plane to New Orleans. The Saints are so much better, and they beat them. Record-setting Saints offense. That was the Mike Thomas 130 catch here, whatever it was.

And how can they stop them? They got all their corners hurt in the last game because Zimmer was mad. He played them all. Sandeo was playing the slot and they still won. So I don't think that the most recent thing we just saw is always predictive of the next thing we're going to see in the NFL. And remember, it's a 14-win team going up against a 10-win team. It's maybe a little different there.

So anyway, hopefully this is it. I've really enjoyed it just for us us our last time doing the previews. But I'll say it just in case it has been so much fun every Friday or Thursday whenever we record this to do a hardcore breakdown with you, Andrew. And we'll see if we keep going. So thank you so much for doing this all season long before every game. It's just been great. Yeah, likewise. It's been fun.

And hopefully your audience has enjoyed it and not lamented me picking them too often i'm sorry again i'm sorry if you were good at picking games you'd be doing that instead of this so uh anyway well thanks everybody and uh maybe we'll see you in arizona football football