Purple Insider - a Minnesota Vikings and NFL podcast - Star Tribune's Andrew Krammer thinks the interior O-line is key to Vikings over Packers

Episode Date: September 27, 2024

Matthew Coller and Star Tribune's Andrew Krammer give a hardcore preview of Vikings - Packers Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Hey everybody, welcome to another episode of Purple Inside. I'm Matthew Collar here along with Andrew Kramer of the Star Tribune. And you know what we've got, Andrew? We have quite a contest here between two squadrons in the National Football Conference. The Vikings will travel through the woods of Wisconsin to arrive in 1996 where the Green Bay Packers exist in the town of Green Bay. It's going to be a good one, man. I am really excited for this game. I am too. I think he once called it the depths of Wisconsin, which is a great way to refer to Green Bay. And I am excited for this one, Matt. Vikings Packers, 3-0 Vikings, somehow 2-1 Green Bay through the Jordan Love injury, through into Malik Willis

and what they've done with him against albeit two bad teams but you've heard the vikings coaches talk and praise matt lafleur all week and it's deserved and i think the vikings coaches deserve just as much praise for what they've done through a three and oh start with sam darnold and this defense so to me this is two of the best coaching staffs going right now in the NFL. We're going to get to see them matched up on the road for a Minnesota team that, frankly, hasn't been tested on the road outside of a little trip to MetLife Stadium that was pretty easy work for them. So I'm really excited to see this Vikings team challenged, pushed, and against a division

rival that knows them better than anybody. So for Green Bay, the big decision here is at the quarterback position how about that i want you to put on your matliff floor hat and decide what the green bay packers should do at quarterback because on one hand they've been winning with malik willis they've shown that they're capable of doing it and actually he's passed the football much more effectively than people thought he could including everyone uh And on the other side of that, you have Jordan Love that should be concerned about Brian Flores' defense, getting after him, making him have to move around while he's still recovering from an injury. But the Packers need this as much as the Vikings do.

They're already a game behind, and they're not going to play again until late December. But if the Vikings are serious and the lions are serious, then every game starts to matter a lot here. Would you try to protect Jordan love and have him fully heal? Or would you prefer to push him out there? Maybe not at a hundred percent because this game is so big. Yeah. And I'm biased because I've been watching all these Vikings games and not every Packers game, but I think this Vikings defense is pretty good. I think they've shown that. And I think Malik Willis is not going to look as good against Brian Flores as he did against that Colts defense as he did against the Titans defense last week. So to me, if I'm the Packers, I would want

to start Jordan Love knowing that he's been practicing at least two weeks coming off that MCL sprain and knowing that a protected Jordan Love just throwing from the pocket is a much better chance for Green Bay to win. Even though I understand much of their offense is horizontal, much of it is sideline to sideline, stretching, moving pockets, rollouts, all those things. I think Matt LaFleur could coach up a system that works for them, understanding that they've got so much talent down the field. Between Jaden Reed, Christian Watson, Romeo Dubs, these guys are different in their own way, and Dontavion Wicks, who could all produce down the field.

Love can give that to you in a way that while Malik Willis threw for over 300 yards across two different games, I don't think he's going to be able to extend that, nor is Flores going to respect it, which is going to change the way that Flores calls the game. He said to Flores this week that he'll have two different call sheets for both of these quarterbacks. I bet you that Malik Willis one has a ton of blitzes.

Oh, I'm sure. And run blitzes. They do have different types of blitzes that are more designed to blow up run plays. And with LaFleur, it's not that I don't think he can keep running the ball effectively because he's always had this for his entire career as an offensive mind and a play caller.

So he can do it, but I don't think you can do it as a cheeseball offense where you're just doing running all the time and then hoping to hit a bomb down the field. That just seems unlikely, kind of in a Josh Dobbs sort of way. Like, oh, okay, well well O'Connell's in his headset and they won a game I can't really do that all the time because then you start to get a beat on what they're going to be able to do and I think that this Vikings defense hasn't been tested against the run but if you know they're going to run I think they'll be able to design

something to give them a chance we'll see on Ivan Pace's health if that could make a difference. But if you're the Vikings, you would much rather play someone who is unproven, limited in what they can do, versus a guy that the Packers just gave $50 million to and shredded you the last time you saw him. Yeah, that's a great point. And I do think that Ivan Pace's injury would hurt them more if he is held out of this game on Sunday. It would hurt them more than it did against the Houston Texans who are not a smash mouth running team. They've generally had good running under their offensive coordinator in Bobby Slowik in Houston, but they're not built that way. Green Bay likes to be built that way with big offensive linemen,

tight ends, use of a fullback when they've got one. And you can, they've just loved to lean downhill on people and the Vikings are going to need their best run stoppers and if I'm Green Bay yeah I think Jordan Love has got to be the guy again he just shredded that Vikings defense back in last December now running back out there against a new personnel and kind of a more flourishing scheme for the Vikings right now under Brian Flores so how good do you think that Jordan Love can be and we'll just factor for some limitations but it is a big element of his game to be able to move around and make off-platform throws and if he can't do that at the same level it does hurt him more than it would a pure pocket quarterback but let's just take that out and imagine that if he's playing that he's healed

enough to be able to play and he can be mostly the normal version of Jordan Love do you think that the truth is in the middle between the two Jordan Loves we saw last year do you lean one way or the other toward he's more like the guy who destroyed the Vikings he's more like the guy who was fooled by Brian Flores's defense and maybe just had a hot run for the second half of last year. Where do you stand on him? Yeah, I think if he had all of his faculties, if his legs were both fully healed, I think Jordan Love is not going to shred the Vikings the way that he did a year ago,

just because the personnel is different. The Vikings are better defensively, but I think Jordan Love is continuing to ascend and can be more of that quarterback, more of that dynamic Brock Purdy plus because of the athlete that he is compared to Purdy. But I say that because they run similar systems that they both benefit off of run after the catch, the schemes that their offensive coordinators run, and the plays that are called.

These guys are all not making it just on their own. Like, you know, you could kind of argue that other quarterbacks like Josh Allen can kind of do sometimes. So I think Jordan Love can be, though, one of those elite guys. We saw it for stretches last year. It was a tough start to his campaign as the guy last year at the beginning, but by the end of the year, he was that dude. And I think he can be that guy in this rivalry, in this division for years to come for them. And that's why so many Vikings fans are hanging their head like, really? You get another one? Are you kidding me? And I hear that from Vikings fans all the time because it's true this guy can be really good I do believe in him and I think five years from now I don't know what's

going to happen with Jared Goff I think it's going to be JJ McCarthy uh Caleb Williams and Jordan Love that are absolutely still part of this division trying to think of a maybe a comparison for Jordan Love because if you just compare him to aaron rogers that's ridiculous aaron rogers is one of the five to seven best quarterbacks to ever play and i don't think that jordan love will be that based on what we saw last year very good but not that is it in the justin herbert category of dudes who are very physically impressive but also do have some weaknesses and they're different weaknesses than Herbert where teams can kind of get Herbert to play ultra conservative at times. And he's always banged up, which I think is a weakness that he's

injured. So it's not a perfect one-to-one comparison, but I think when they do the quarterback tiers, there is the a one section of my homes, Allen, and maybe burrow. And I think it's the next one down after that, that Jordan love can be in, which means that you don't go into every game going, okay,

well, there's no answer to that guy. Like you do with Aaron Rogers, but also over an entire season, he's going to throw 30 touchdowns. He's going to have his team competing for the division. That's, that's where I think the most likely landing spot for jordan love is yeah i would agree and

again to me it's a brock purdy plus where i pretty would probably be a tier below that then even below where we're talking about for him and so i think that's where it's at because he's not one of those guys that transcends scheme i don't think you could put him in uh what andy reed has patrick mahomes doing or what Joe Brady has Josh Allen doing, which is just kind of hero ball a lot of the times it would seem. I don't think you could even put him necessarily in what Tua is doing in Miami where it's all timing and rhythm based. I think they're accentuating his arm and pushing the ball downfield. They're leaning on the fact that they can scheme such a good run game with Matt LaFleur that like San Francisco they can leverage that into an explosive passing game much like the Vikings did in 2019

and 20 with Gary Kubiak these are teams that with their quarterbacks know what they're good at know how to manage games and they're going to get labeled more like game managers I think at times and you're right I think it's fair though to look at Love and say that that should be the system he's in because he's not that guy that is going to step up and transcend. I would add Lamar Jackson to that top, top tier of a guy that you know MVP level can win you a game single-handedly by himself. So Love, people should have their expectations set properly for him, but that still, with Matt LaFleur, is going to give them enough year after year to contend.

And if that roster continues to get restocked, like Brian Gutekunst is doing for them, it's going to be a headache for Vikings fans. Yeah. I get that tier probably also includes someone like Jalen hurts someone like Dak Prescott. These are all very Kyler Murray, very,

very good quarterbacks that I think almost anybody would take. I don't know what to do with Matt Stafford at this point, but he's probably like that ish. And then maybe one year at all comes together. But for his entire career, Matthew Stafford was, wow, this guy is so impressive physically, but he also made too many mistakes and missed too many obvious passes until he got out to the Rams where he still threw a ton of interceptions that year, but they dropped one in the playoffs, and then Aaron Donald took over a game. But Jordan Love, I think, is kind of like what Stafford was for many years in Detroit,

only with better coaching from Matt LaFleur and this franchise. Let me ask you a fun question, I think, regarding Jordan Love. And again, we don't know if he's going to play. And I don't know what else to say about Malik Willis other than that's fun, I guess. Right? Like, I've seen that at Air Force. So this, the Navy.

The wing team. Right, exactly. That could be cool to watch. And maybe they'll stop it or not. But who's going to throw more touchdown passes this year? Sam Darnold or Jordan Love? Wow. That's a heck of a question, too.

That is a fun question. That's why i'm a professional podcaster don't you understand boy um you know i'm gonna go ahead and say sam darnold and i'm gonna say it because of the game we just watched in which they got to the goal line aaron jones had multiple carries from the one even that got stalled he has one rushing touchdown through three games and Sam Darnold has eight passing touchdowns and Kevin O'Connell can scheme up a passing game, including in the red zone. What they can't do is play smash mouth run football. And that is something that the Packers

typically can do. I don't know this Packers offensive line as well. I know they've had changes, but they've had some decent returns from Josh Jacobs and from Jaden Reed, from Malik Willis, just how they scheme that run game. If Jordan Love comes back and if Jacobs is the same guy he was, he had a big game. Was it week two? I can't remember who it was against. Indy. Indy. So he had one big game. If they can get more from him like that, Jordan Love's just not going to be needed to throw four touchdowns in a game. And I do think Green Bay's defense, much like the Vikings defense, is good enough that neither of these guys should be in too many shootouts really the question is because clearly darnold has had these last two games he gets a big jump on jordan love for how many touchdown

passes he could throw it's sort of a way of asking do you think that sam darnold is going to continue to throw a bunch of touchdown passes i do think that aaron jones will get himself in the end zone at some point although kevin o'connell we now have a large sample of this team being really good passing in the red zone that they just are good at drawing these concepts up and finding guys and then when you have a laser beam that can even kind of be i don't want to say late but get around to the progression and fit it into johnny munt even though the defender knows the ball's going there, I mean, that helps you as well to have that kind of arm talent.

But it's really a question of, okay, I think I know that Jordan Love at the end of the year is going to get like 25 touchdowns or something. Does Sam Darnold continue on this trajectory to blow by that and then kind of like, I know this is our hardcore preview, but what does it mean if he does? Yeah, I think he's going to, again again i think he'll have to for this offense i think they just have too much talent when t.j hawkinson comes back even more reason for them to be throwing in that area um i just don't think aaron jones when he scores touchdowns are gonna have to be exactly what he did on the first one which is taking an inside run and bouncing it way outside because there's

just nowhere up the middle to run or it's gonna have to be from 10 to 15 yards out. He got caught at the one-yard line trying to break a 40-yarder in that game against Houston. He's not going to have the explosiveness to outrun guys for 60 yards anymore. I just don't think, or the endurance, I should say, to do that. He has the explosiveness. I think Darnold will have to carry more of the load, and what that means for the Vikings is he needs to be on point. He needs to not shuffle past to Aaron Jones in the red zone and have Wes Phillips holding his breath on the sideline, because that could easily be a turnover.

Even when you have your back to your own end zone, you can't rifle a pass to Josh Oliver and the double coverage that the Texans just drop. He's gotten away with stuff in some of these games that if you're a Viking fan, like they would have won that Houston game anyway. But if you're a viking fan you're thinking you're still holding your breath and i know coaches are as well on the sidelines so darnold has to be on point he has to be consistent and through three games we've been shown little to doubt that so i'm a little bit of two minds on that because i think that he's played so well that a couple plays that were a little wonky we can look at

and go well though that's the one because we know your history and poor Sam Darnold every time the man does a press conference someone's like remember when you weren't good what's going on this week's was great uh yes it was I'm sure if people have the internet they've seen that event uh but it it's always like he and he has to go like well i'm gonna try not to be bad again uh but his turnover worthy play rate is in the top 10 in a good way so far so he hasn't had that crazy turnover luck it's really just been something we remembered because we all went no like don't do that uh for one or two plays but i actually think that the biggest plus that i would give him is how many snaps you could say that looks like what the play was

supposed to be and it doesn't look like you tried to do anything too much with it and even when it doesn't work and west phillips did say this to us that he he was proud of Sam Darnold's four or five throwaways. And I, when I watched the game back, thought in a couple of those throwaways or just, you know, throw the ball down or try to check it down or something. I thought this, if he does this, he will continue to succeed because that's always been the issue. It's not, can he make tight window throws? It's not, can he launch it down the field? It's really, can he avoid trying to do too much? And so far he has. This is why Lambeau is a new test for him though.

The environment's different. And also the game circumstance is probably going to be different. It's not likely that they're up 21, nothing right out of the gate of the second half of the game against green Bay. If they are, then we're really talking about something special here, but I doubt it. Right. So if this is more of the duel that we all think it's going to be, I want to see how well he's able to keep his head, particularly when I believe that the Packers are going

to create a lot of pressure. Yeah. You're saying, how is he going to manage the game? Yeah, really? I mean, that's exactly right. How are you going? How are you going to manage it if they're up by seven if they're up by 10 that can happen we saw this was something that kirk

was amazing at if the other team was down or up by 14 he just kept plugging away and he would bring them back many many times from deficits like that are we going to see at that point though darnold get over aggressive get over anxious if it is kind of a back and forth shootout or if it is a situation where he has to come back because we just haven't seen him do that in this franchise yet so far is there only deficit when they were down three nothing to the Giants correct that's so yeah that's pretty wild that Darnold has not been tested in that way and I think you can't overlook his year in San Francisco last year. I mean, these things aren't all, um, you know, linear. He talked about growing in his fifth was his fifth year in the NFL talked about growing in a way, learning from

Brock Purdy about how just the role of a quarterback should be, what I should be doing for a team to win. And that sounds so basic of like, how do you not know that when you're a Heisman candidate at USC, but that's just not how these guys are taught. It's go out there and sling it, Sam. We're going to go win a bunch of plays because you got a bunch, you know, Ronald Jones and a bunch of talent on your team. You have to really learn in the NFL how to manage these things. And he felt like Brock Purdy, a guy who was younger than him,

is lesser in terms of experience, taught him that because of the tutelage from Kyle Shanahan and how that team is run. I think that gave him the foundation to come in here and do that right away in Minnesota where he didn't have to learn that here. He didn't come from Carolina last year. He wasn't, you know, there wasn't all that. There wasn't too much rust that he had to shake out of his brain in terms of the crap that went, that he went through at the beginning of his career. So to me, I think that says he's ready to do it but just like you i'm just as curious to see how that actually plays out in a game on the road where you're right the crowd is not going to be on your side like it has been and he's going to

probably be put in some tough spots against a defense that's got so much talent especially up front okay i do want to get to that matchup because I think that this is the toughest overall defense that they faced so far out of these previous teams. We usually think of San Francisco as being unbelievable defensively, but I'm not sure that they are this year. And the Texans have the two rushers, but I don't know if the entirety of that group is as good as Green Bay. But I was thinking about something that, gosh, who would have said this to me? Was it maybe Steve Beerline? Why not? I did an article about Gary Kubiak a few years ago, and Beerline was one of the people that I talked to. Shout out to one of the great journeyman

quarterbacks in history. And he was saying that Gary Kubiak's perspective as a quarterback was so helpful to him because when he made mistakes, Gary would often say, I understand why you didn't see that. Let's just move on. And it helped him mentally rather than having a coach who got angry at him or didn't understand what he saw out there. And sometimes it's not the quarterback's fault, but it always is. If Mike Zimmer is your coach, for example, that kind of thing. I have thought a lot about how Kevin O'Connell not just guides schematically, but also from a mental perspective. And I just feel like Darnold has been in such a good place confidence wise. And that even when there have been things that have gone a little wrong, an interception in the red zone, it hasn't stuck with him.

And that is really, really important because he's going to make more mistakes as the games go along. There will be a strip sack in here somewhere. There will be, you know, another bad interception there somewhere. But the fact that we have at least that snippet of him moving on quickly, I feel like that's coach quarterback relationship showing itself. Oh my God. Yeah. And it's not just him. It's Wes Phillips. It's Josh McCown. It's everybody in his ear. There's not one level of the bureaucracy of an NFL team right now that is

negative towards him. And I think I, we talked about this last week when I was on, it's the wind beneath his wings from Kevin O'Connell. Like that's, that's really what it is. Like this guy has just needed somebody to boost him up. And I think every quarterback needs that if Brock Purdy or anybody else, I'm trying to, I'm just picking like random guys who have jumped up, but CJ Stroud, if he had gone to a team that wasn't like the Houston Texans staff, when you hear about the way Bobby Sloat coaches, the way D'Amico Ryan's coaches, it's very similar. It's like a Dan Quinn in Washington where Jaden Daniels is doing well right out of the gate all of a sudden. This is not a culture of fear, as a certain former Vikings linebacker might say. I think that's helpful in today's game because today's younger people and young draft picks are not the same as

they were 20 years ago. You need to treat them a little differently. And I think Sam Darnold, even a 2018 draft pick, is still cut from that cloth he's still SoCal he's still laid back he's still a certain way so I just think that Sam Darnold needed this he needed that kind of professionalism around him it's for him to believe in it but then he also needed people to believe in him in a way that Kevin O'Connell's wired to do and you hear national talking heads saying who would you want to put a young quarterback with I'd put Kevin O'Connell number wired to do. And you hear national talking heads saying, who would you want to put a young quarterback with? I'd put Kevin O'Connell, number one. And he's rightfully getting that reputation.

Well, and with Sam Darnold, now I don't pretend to know him super well. We've only been around him for three weeks and he has been very cautious at the podium, even when he is asked ridiculous questions as he was the other day, but he's mostly been very reserved. He's not going to

come out and pimp the home run. That's like if you birdie the first hole and you start dancing around, you are just asking to bogey the next three or worse. So he has not tried to be like, see jets, J E T suck. He hasn't, he hasn't been doing that at all. And I understand that. But I wonder if he is someone that needs more support because there are certain people, maybe Josh Allen's like this. He kind of strikes me like this, where absolutely nobody could ever knock that guy's confidence down a peg. Oh, yeah. And that's super rare.

Ninety nine point nine percent of human beings can have someone else or the circumstances impact how they feel about themselves. And when he's gotten into ruts before he's kind of stayed there. And we know this, that organizations can do that to themselves. The building can start lighting on fire and then everybody's pointing fingers and all those things. I just don't think that's going to happen here because even when we saw them go through things last year, they played their butts off in that loss to Detroit when they had to go there for no reason. I mean, they kept playing for Kevin O'Connell. And so I don't see a world where Sam Darnold suddenly doesn't believe in himself anymore.

It's really only whether the regression to what he has been before just comes for him or not. Yeah. So you're saying he's not going to turn into a pumpkin it's not going to be all sudden carolina panthers it's not that he won't or it's not possible but he won't because of kevin o'connell and the way that he's treated him if he does it's because he's just not that good that would be the only reason so you're saying yeah this is an infallible setup that they've given him and i would agree i mean we haven't been given any reason to doubt it the talent around them would say that certainly the scheme we see guys running wide open all the time. And even when they're not, they're still in position to make catches and

make plays and players just sing the praise of this coaching staff, the NFL PA through the players votes them number one and all these rankings, including coaching staff. Um, so yeah, I think there's no reason to doubt what Sam Darnold has, and it is going to truly find the league, and all of us are going to truly find out what this guy can do. Eight touchdown passes through three games, including the four that he did that were so different in that Houston game, whether it was off schedule on the run,

whether it was a schemed wide open one to Aaron Jones, whether it was him resetting his feet through a progression to Jalen Naylor in the back corner or a contested one to johnny munt that's such a wide range of stuff this guy can do for you that i think kevin o'connell is going to find a way to keep doing it i think so too and i don't think that justin jefferson will stop being justin jefferson in any way as he always has been no team has ever figured out a way to consistently take him away on a weekly basis. So that is going to sustain more or less no matter what. But there is a worry along the offense. I think they'll get Addison back this week.

Not sure. We're recording this before we know, but I can almost guarantee future me will be reading a report that says questionable for Jordan Addison. So shout out future me. I know you're reading that right now, pal. You're the believe in you he looked good at Thursday's practice we've seen that okay there you go uh I think he's gonna play uh this week so the offense around uh Darnold can get better yeah the interior offensive line particularly the center and the right guard I don't think are getting better Garrett Bradbury's injuries, and Ed Ingram is Ed Ingram, and it hasn't changed.

In fact, I think it's gotten worse. This is a major, major concern against the Green Bay Packers. Yeah, speaking of what we saw at Thursday's practice, Dalton Reisner was in the weight room lifting, and he's eligible to come back next week. Not this week, but next week against the New York Jets, and I wouldn't be shocked if Ed Ingram has a bad game that they don't get a look in practice of Dalton Reisner at right guard. And if Reisner looks healthy enough up to speed, that might take a little bit though.

Maybe Reisner would need the bye week, need an additional week of practice and all that. However, the leash should be pretty short for Ingram. He's been very up and down. I blew a screen block in this last game that got Aaron Jones put on his back. It's been very up and down. He blew a screen block in this last game that got Aaron Jones put on his back. It's just every week he is the weakest link for them. I think PFF's got him as one of the worst graded guards in football once again. This coaching staff had him out there all preseason because he had a slow start to camp. Kweisi Adolfo Mensah, the GM, basically said he showed up out of shape after his surgery in the offseason, and that's why he had a slow start to camp. So I just think overall he hasn't won a ton of people over,

and therefore Kenny Clark might be a guy that puts him on the bench or fast-tracks him toward the bench. Because, yeah, that front, Lucas Van Ness, who's the Georgia kid that they got in the first round? Wyatt. Wyatt as well. Those are rotational guys that come off the bench for them. This Vikings offensive line was talking to Brian O'Neill the other day, and he was mentioning that we absolutely know that we can't sleep on their second waves. This is a team that has depth in a way that we haven't seen yet in the NFL,

which speaks to it because you would think the Niners have that, but maybe to your point, they just don't this year. This Packers team is deep and Quay Walker as well as somebody that multiple Vikings players have pointed out this week as somebody who they have to keep an eye out for. They've drafted a ton of talent on that side of the ball. And I know you can say, well, they haven't played anybody yet, but the players are the players. Like the talent is there for this team to be the most complete defense that the Vikings have faced so far.

And Xavier McKinney is another guy that they brought over who has been a major difference maker for them. We know that Jair Alexander is capable of going to battle with Jefferson like few other people have. And I think Alexander had a pick six last week and they're playing pretty well. And if they create the interior pressure against ingram and bradbury it's going to be so difficult for sam darnold to navigate especially when they do have really effective edge rushers and it is felt like this offensive line is kind of teetering a little bit where it's o'neill derisaw just do everything save our butts. And it's been edge rushers and edge rushers, but Dexter Lawrence annihilated them in a game that was over pretty fast

because Daniel Jones was so bad. But had it not been, that would have been a really relevant factor. So how do you scheme around that? How do you work around that? The only way is really making sure that they're not in situations where they can have favorable rushes by working Aaron Jones, I think. Yeah, I think the game plan, too, has to be somewhat similar to what you did in week one against Dexter Lawrence, which was a lot of moving pockets. It was getting Sam Darnold out and on the move.

I remember they were back up to their own goal line. Was it a 99-yard drive they had in that game? They were backed up to their own goal line, and to start that drive, it's just a quick play action, bootleg, throw to Ty Chandler in the flat. Those are the kinds of things that I see them doing in a week like this where it's just get the ball out of your hands fast. One-read stuff, make it clear for Sam Darnold. Do not have him do a five-step drop and go through his reads

and test that protection up front. I think this is going to be one where Kevin O'Connell is probably going to go in wanting to be conservative to see how his guys play Clark to see how they're holding up up front. And then probably has a plan to quickly get Sam Darnold on the move and out of there. And I've been kind of impressed so far with Sam Darnold's internal clock. Yeah. That's something that I didn't expect with him. I thought, well, boy, you look at the stat sheet, interceptions, loss fumbles, sacks. You think this guy just doesn't know what he's doing in the pocket, but it's credit to either the coaching in both San Francisco and Minnesota, or just his own development. He clearly has more of a sense

of when to run in that touchdown to Jefferson to open the Texans game is a great example where he just sensed the pressure left at the exact right time and then threw it right as he was getting taken down by somebody. That is going to be paramount this week because as you said, he's going to have to make sure that that pressure to sack rate that is so important is pretty low for him. Something I was very surprised with in his numbers were that historically he didn't cause a lot of his own pressure in his previous locations he just had offensive lines that were literally that bad there were just the worst in the entire nfl and he has never had a pass blocking unit above 25th i keep going back to that stat when i watch him play in the pocket and there was a completion he

had to brandon powell that i thought was so impressive because somebody was flying at him and he stepped up and just got enough on the football to get it to powell and i think the next play they converted on fourth and short and otherwise that would have just been a punt but he was able to slide up in the pocket and just playing with timeliness as well the packersers though, and I know it was under Joe Barry, but I'm sure when they go back and look at the tape for how the Vikings have run their play actions and moving pockets and bootlegs, they have been pretty good at sending their guys upfield and stopping those like Preston Smith lines up outside a lot, just coming up field. And I think that has to be one of their main goals is to try to stop those play actions because they have actually been really good for Sam Darnold.

It's almost like Kevin O'Connell stole some things from Kyle Shanahan for Matt LaFleur where they like to use those more traditional Kubiak and Shanahan type of plays. That's a battle that I'm really interested to watch. I want to know what you think as far as what this game means to each team. I will begin with this. You can think about it. I think for the Vikings, if it is close and they don't win, well, I think everything is still pretty much on track. I mean, this is as good of a start as they could have ever dreamed of. You go to London next week against a team that's okay, but I don't think it's terrifying. With a chance to go to the buy at

four and one you can't ask for anything better than that if they get blasted then we'll have some more doubts about this team for sure and if they win then it's on i mean it's just absolutely on we're starting to talk about where this team could go and it will be deserved considering who they've played so far and on the other side the Packers if they lose this game they're going to feel like they're really scraping and clawing for the rest of the way because the Vikings will have two games on them with a game on the road win and then Detroit I think is going to keep winning so I think that this game is really bigger for the Packers because they've gotten behind the eight ball a little

bit here by losing one game and the Vikings not than it is necessarily the Vikings yeah the Vikings would be three and oh in the NFC with a win um so far the Packers would be oh and two if they lost in the conference yeah I agree with you because Green Bay is supposed to be a step ahead of Minnesota they're supposed to be you know a year ahead really or if not multiple years ahead in terms of where they're at. So you're supposed to be hitting the ground running like Detroit, you know, was supposed to be, and they just kind of haven't yet, even though they're two and one, it hasn't looked great so far. So I think if you're the Vikings, this win could be the exclamation point, the flag, you know, planting and saying, we are atop the division here. Come get us because they would be,

they'd be four and oh, at this point, they'd have three wins against the NFC. They would have defeated the Superbowl representatives from last year. Yeah, you're right. It would be on. And it's if they lose though, I agree with you. It doesn't mean a whole lot. I think with Green Bay though, it really depends on how it looks because if Jordan Love goes out there and he's hurt again, and it was, it was, oh, you rushed him out there against Brian Flores to win a division game, and not only did you lose, you got him hurt, and now he's out even longer, that would be 2-2 for the Packers. And then just seeing however long Jordan Love is out,

trying to manufacture some more wins. Green Bay has more at stake, frankly. The Vikings have earned more of a cushion at this point, but I think Vikings fans want this one. I think when you ask, what does it mean to the team? You're right. It doesn't mean a ton in the grand scheme of things, but for Vikings fans, this would be the ability for them to really thump their chest and say, you know what, this is for real. Forget everybody else who doubted us. Who's the guy who asked Sam Darnold, what do you think of your haters? Um, haters um it was the doubters it was the doubters vikings fans could say that to everybody if they win this game because

yeah you would just point to your schedule say what is fake about what we just did there's a guy who comments on a lot of the videos shout out to you andrew i believe is his name actually who wanted to bet a thousand dollars with anyone in the comments that Sam Darnall would be a top 10 quarterback. And he has been responding to his own comments about that and saying, and see, none of the good thing, none of you bet me because I would be winning right now. Do you, do you think he ends up there? Do you think he ends up as a top 10 quarterback? What's the metric? What are we judging this on?

Just, just if you said, who were the top 10 guys in 2024? Yeah. Well, yeah, I was going to say, let's go with some random nfl.com, uh, quarterback ranking, uh, because there are quarterback rankings out there. I mean, PFF QBR, like these metrics. I mean, PFF is probably a fair enough one. I don't know like quarterback rating quarterback rating um i think yes i think this defense will keep them in enough games where

sam won't be in enough negative scripts as you're talking about where he hasn't flourished in the past where yeah he's going to put up numbers i think we're going to see some of these games look at their schedule too you got you got thets, the Jaguars, the Titans. These are games that you would think Sam Darnold could walk into now and throw three touchdowns, and it's not absurd to think about. So for me, I could see him being bottom part of that top ten quarterbacks because I just think those we named four or five guys who are in the upper echelon, those guys should be in the top.

Then there's always going to be some big offenses that blow up, whether it's a Dak Prescott or a Niners or Jared Goff. Somebody is Kyler Murray this year in Arizona. There's going to be a lot of good offenses out there. But I think Kevin O'Connell, this depth chart with how talented they are, and with Sam Darnold playing as confidently as we talk about him playing, there's no reason to think why they can't be a top-ten offense and him be a top-ten quarterback.

I think it's trending that way. I'll probably be able to say a little bit better after these next two games because it is two very tough defenses. And if he can do battle with the Packers and with the Jets, then I think he's going to get there. Who do you think wins? Boy, I'm going to pick the Vikings. I've been picking against the Vikings so often. I picked against them last week. I picked against

them the Niners week as well. But I now hook, line, and sinker. They got me. I believe in this team. I believe in this defense. That defense showed me a lot against C.J. Stroud. Now, I don't think that was Houston's best day. I think they're going to look back on that day and not want to remember any part of it. But I do think we learned a lot about their depth to be without Ivan Pace and Dallas Turner and to not even bat an eye. The kind of amoeba shapes of so many of these defenders to just move wherever you need them to be. It means that they're going to withstand the attrition of an NFL season better than most teams. I think most teams are going to feel when an Ivan Pace is out or when your first round edge rusher is not there, but all of a sudden the Vikings develop Patrick Jones and no guy

was four sacks in three games. Those are the kinds of things that make a difference for you in the long run. And so I think it also makes a difference for you in games like this, where when we talk about the Packers defensive depth, the Vikings have it too. and right now the vikings are the ones that have a quarterback that's been playing that is in rhythm with his offense has chemistry with his guys right now and is not going to have to try to pick it up on the fly like jordan love might it's a tough one i mean because i i could really see this going either way and the fact that jordan love might have to play where he's still potentially banged up could be a factor and if malik willis plays then that's a totally different thing i would definitely

pick the vikings if malik willis is playing i will lean ever so slightly toward the vikings but i think just for reference whatever i pick for this one i'll probably pick the opposite next week because i don't think that they start five and0. I think they'll start 4-1 and split these next two, which is a little bit of a cop-out. But I might go this one with a Will Reichard 52-yard field goal to win it. It feels like it's going to be close. It feels like it's going to be a battle. The biggest concern for me is that offensive line interior

against the Packers D-line. But I think they can win this game. Maybe the kicker might be the difference. I was on green Bay radio and that's all they wanted to talk about. Cause they're kicking situation. No one's got any faith or trust in it. And so they're like, Hey,

this Vikings kicker is all of a sudden ice cold. He's going to walk into Lambeau and beat us. We'll see. That was the main subject of the conversation. Okay. It was Aaron Jones. And then it was Will Ryker. Okay.

All right. That makes a little more sense actually. Okay. Andrew Kramer, Star Tribune. All right. That makes a little more sense, actually. Okay. Andrew Kramer, Star Tribune, thank you so much. As always, every week we do this hardcore football-y breakdown, and it does not get more hardcore and football-y than Vikings Packers in the woods. All right. That's it.

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