Purple Insider - a Minnesota Vikings and NFL podcast - The Minnesota Vikings straight up demolished the Green Bay Packers

Episode Date: September 12, 2022

Matthew Coller and Paul Hodowanic break down the Vikings' 23-7 win over the Green Bay Packers. How the Vikings kept the gas pedal down offensively and kept pushing the ball to Justin Jefferson and whether the Packers' offensive struggles were the Vikings playing great defense or the Packers having no good receivers. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Hello, welcome to the Minnesota Vikings absolutely demolished the Green Bay Packers postgame podcast. Matthew Collar here on Purple Insider along with Paul Odoanek of WCCO Radio. And the party is ensuing around me after most people have left the stadium, but still music, people milling around. So some background noise here as there is a lot of excitement for the result of this football game. And the other day, Paul, someone asked on the show for a fans-only question. They said, what would have to happen for the Green Bay Packers to lose this game by three scores to the Vikings? And my answer was, well, pretty much everything would have to go

in the best case scenario for the Vikings. Justin Jefferson would have to annihilate the secondary of the Packers. They would have to have Aaron Rodgers get super frustrated. Hunter and Smith would have to be all over Rodgers. He'd have to throw the ball away constantly. He'd have to be yelling at his wide receivers and coaches on the sideline. And then maybe you mix in a turnover. Some things go the wrong way for Green Bay and the right way for the Vikings. And wow, did we check every single one of those boxes right off the very start. A 75-yard touchdown is just taken off the board by Christian Watson's pause. Ball goes right through his hands.

And right from that moment, you're like, okay, this is going to be one of those days where Aaron Rodgers is throwing the iPad or the tablet on the sideline. And he most certainly was, he looked flustered, frustrated, upset. He threw to running backs and tight ends all day and the Packers, um, you know, I don't want to give them any advice about how to play defense. I'm sure their defensive coordinator knows more than me about football. He could drop some X's and O's that I wouldn't know about. But I would suggest maybe trying to cover Justin Jefferson. I mean, we have to give all the credit

to Kevin O'Connell, the offensive scheme, the opening script, and the way in which they found ways for Justin Jefferson to get open. And then, of course, Justin Jefferson, a leaping catch at the end of the game, a diving touchdown at one point, I mean, open all day yards after catch

everything that you ever could have dreamed for and asked for from Justin Jefferson happened for the Vikings to win this game. And if you had drawn it up for the Kevin O'Connell era to start and said, here's the things I want to happen. I want U.S. Bank Stadium at the end of this game to seem like it was about to implode from the noise. You got that. If you wanted Kirk Cousins to look more comfortable and make some plays, but just make the throws that he needed to make today to the open receivers, he did that. And then when you had your chance and Paul I want you to react to this I think the biggest moment of the game is the Packers score the Vikings get a stop they get the ball

back and this is your moment this is where you put the dagger in where last year they did not do that anywhere near enough and Cousins throws a line drive pass to Adam Thielen 22 yard completion Thielen didn't have a big day, but it doesn't matter. At that moment, it was a third down. They threw the ball, they threw it aggressively, and they go down and kick a field goal, which put the thing officially out of reach when there was just that one little moment of, oh, maybe something could go wrong. And then they didn't say, let's run Delvin three times and punt the ball away. It was kind of a moment of truth for Kevin O'Connell. And he passed everything in flying colors to open his coaching career.

Yeah. I think, you know, everything's going swimmingly for a half. Everyone's excited. And then finally the Packers score and you go, Oh crap. Like, is this about to happen again? And I can't really blame fans for the way last year went and the leads they gave up and the leads they gave up and the way they turtled in big moments but yeah that drive was kind of encompassed the entire game of you know this coaching staff isn't going to do things the way the previous coaching staff did and I'm sure that'll come with its lumps but today they passed the first step the first test with

with flying colors like you say they go out 12 plays 74 yards took about five minutes off the clock when time is currency for the Packers at that point they need time to go now they didn't waste eight minutes of the clock but they kept the ball moving and yeah they Kirk was decisive pretty much all game in what he was trying to do I know towards the end of the training camp there were some questions with Kirk even kind of himself himself asking, like, is this offense ready? Like, we need to be better. Sure didn't look like they struggled in the preseason and sure didn't look like they got zero reps in any preseason games. That turns out that didn't matter.

But yeah, I think that moment was really reflective. And even though they don't score the touchdown, they go up and basically go up 16 and make the Packers play perfect football from there. And the Packers were not a perfect team at any point on the field today. And that obviously then showed because then they immediately turned the ball over on downs. Vikings punt, game ends, the next drive there. So big, big, big step for the Vikings. And just to finally see it, we've been talking about this and it's always been in hypotheticals. Oh, what could O'Connell do with Justin Jefferson?

These are the things they did with Cooper Cup. Maybe these things could translate to Justin Jefferson. What could he do for Kirk? How will defense look? All the hypotheticals came true and all of them came true on the positive end for the Vikings. We're obviously excited about the way things are. So, yeah, what other big takeaways did you have from the game?

Yeah, I think that the offense being a real combination of some of the stuff that they like to do in the past with some of the stuff that Kevin O'Connell clearly wanted to do by opening it up and putting five wide receiving options out there, not necessarily five receivers, but having, you know, Dalvin Cook lineup at wide receiver, sort of as promised, but also CJ Hamm gets a touch and Ben Ellison and Johnny months, you know, I mean, you saw some of the, we're going to line up in an eye formation and run a bootleg, which was effective at times, or we're going to hand the ball off, which was effective at times. And then you also saw, now we're going to spread it out. Now we're going to put three wide receivers in a bunch formation and run routes that confuse the Packers. And they also just forced a lot of mismatches, which is really like the defining factor of Sean McVay

and Rams and Shanahan style football. The, the office of innovators is how can we find the best mismatch based on what their coverage is doing and all of a sudden i'm seeing justin jefferson on quay walker and on preston smith he's making catches against the packers zone where you're like how in the world like wait was jair alexander playing in this game or he was rarely matched up against a corner on a lot of these catches, which was really incredible to see. And I think that that scheme now, I mean, there's bigger picture questions that we could talk about later in the show or that we can get to throughout the week about carrying this over

and what it all means and how much is repeatable. But from this first game, I think a lot of it was repeatable where you game plan really well. Your opening script is good. But not only that, it wasn't, it didn't like fall off after the opening script. They did have to punt a couple of times, but then they come back and find ways to produce points. And then again, like taking advantage of when things went wrong for the Packers.

So the Packers fail on a fourth and one at the goal line. And then right away, it's a 64 yard play from cousins to Jefferson in which the Packers completely lost Justin Jefferson. Again, no idea how that happened. That's one of the things we'll have to look back at when we rewatch the game. But the point just being that there were many occasions where it wasn't just asking Justin Jefferson to do great things. Sometimes he did the catch at the end where he reaches up, where he jumps up on a, I think it was a third down and makes the catch over the corner. That's just greatness right there. That's him being Michael Jordan. But as far as the scheme goes and how they were able to create those

mismatches, I thought, you know, maybe part of it was really, really understanding the rules of the Green Bay defense and how it operates, that maybe Ed Donatel would have a good understanding, Mike Pettin would certainly have a good understanding. But when you're asking Kevin O'Connell to take this offense to a different place from where it was before, I think that's part of the formula. I don't think it was a perfect offensive day. And I certainly think that we would have been telling a little bit of a different story had green Bay's offense been better and had they punched it in or had, I mean, they should have had three touchdowns instead. They had one because of football and circumstances, like you're a yard away from one, you're a dropped pass away from one. So it was not like this absolutely flawless game where the door was never opened to the Packers and that the Vikings scored on every single play kind of like or every single drive like Buffalo did against the Rams where I think they didn't punt until like the fourth quarter or didn't punt at all um you know so it wasn't exactly like that and there's some things

we could talk about that might be weaknesses still at him right guard offense line um but the ways in which cousins had easy completions throughout the day to his absolute best player is like the the thing that makes the rams what they were last year with cooper cup and to do that like if you were naming things that you wanted to see the most that probably would have been number one how is jefferson used what kind of date does he have and it turns out to be a historic day for Justin Jefferson right and a big part of this offense the Shanahan McVay kind of system is how easy they make it on their quarterbacks like that's always talked about and I think you could tell from the way O'Connell called this game and the

way this is schemed out like Cousins could kind of like he had easy decisions to make like he knew where it was going to go and the things were schemed up to where he didn't have to progress four reads through like things were designed well to where oh look justin jefferson's open again like open again open again like he wasn't needing to do a lot of super hard things they weren't asking him to do a ton of hard things and i think that's because you're doing those pre-stamp motion things where Cousins then can easily identify what defense they're in. He can easily see Justin Jefferson's now on Preston Smith, like the things that the offense can do to just make the life of the quarterback easier. I think Cousins has had good coordinators in the past, but I don't know if that's always been the case a hundred percent of the time.

Today, it felt like it was like, it didn't seem like Cousins really had to break much of a sweat out there, and it started from the first drive. The first play, they're in 11 personnel. They do motion. They get an easy Johnny Munt pass. Then later, they're in empty. These are new things that they're doing on the touchdown. Justin Jefferson's back in motion. They can see what type of defense is being read, and it's just those small things that we know have been proven to be better for your offense that for whatever reason the Vikings just weren't leaning into a ton prior to this and they've just started to lean into it and they leaned into it to the tune of 395 yards I believe that that's an average of I think they were at 6.5 yards per play which to put in perspective the Chiefs last year

the best offense in football uh per this metric were 6.1 yards per play. So now that's above that. So obviously they need to do that game after game after game, and that's going to be the question. How often can they do this? But from a start, this is what you have to do to be a number one offense. And like you were mentioning, I think it is pretty sustainable, the things that they were doing.

Like I don't think Justin Jefferson is just going to stop getting open. I don't think Adam Thielen and Dalvin cook had the greatest games that they could have. I don't even know if I really saw Irv Smith on the field. Like there are more weapons that this team can deploy. And now Justin Jefferson is probably not going to go for the stat line. He's going to go for every single game and there's going to be counters, but I think the Vikings have counters off of what they're doing and they have other talent that they can use too but like i think another big part of why it's sustainable i don't i think green bay's defense

is generally a good unit dff graded them as the sixth best best roster coming into the year and a big part of that was the defense like the wide receivers were supposed to fall off like the defense was going to be what was going to carry them and like direct quote from the pff article the packers defense is loaded with talent on all three levels um to the the real star is the secondary two seasons ago adrian amos ranked first in pff's wins above replacement while jair alexander alexander led the way at cornerback at their respective positions so like this isn't they're not going up against like the Eagles defense, which they're going to see next week and which was horrendous against the lions this week. Like this was top-notch defense.

And when they're using schematic advantages, like just using motion. And I think they were an 11 personnel, like 70% of the time tonight, just those like modern updates to an offense that the Vikings hadn't been doing previously that they're starting to do. I think those are sustainable things that can keep this offense moving forward so I thought generally while there were a couple lulls in a few of the drives the offense played really really solid in to a point where I do think this type of performance is very repeatable again I think the Packers defense is going to be a good unit this year. And you made them look like they had no idea what was going on. So I think only time will tell on that, but I, I, I think this win

will continue to look better as we see the Packers defense probably stiffen up and continue to get better. And you're going to see, okay, maybe this was just Justin Jefferson being amazing. And I, I really do think this is a sustainable, sustainable model for the Vikings moving forward. So I, I'm not going to pour any cold water on this type of performance because this was as great as you could have drawn it up. I will say, though, just let us not be quite prisoners of the moment with the offense because I'd like to read you what Kirk did in his first three games last year.

He threw for 351 yards, two touchdowns, no picks against Cincinnati, three touchdowns, no picks, and 244 against Arizona. Then 323, three touchdowns, no picks against the Seattle Seahawks in the first three games of last year. And I distinctly remember saying, man, you know, I know they've lost two of those games in tough fashion, but Clint Kubiak has really updated this offense. So, you know, we'll wait to completely declare this now the 2021 Rams or the best passing game in the league or something like that. But that's why I think that it was always going to be around the edges. It wasn't going to be that just everything was different from an offense that was good. And by the first few weeks of the season last year,

the Vikings were performing at a very high level. And we've seen lots of times over the last four years because Kirk Cousins is a good quarterback who can deliver the football to his receivers. So there have been long stretches of tremendous play by Kirk Cousins. I think what it felt more like to me was 2019 with Kevin Stefanski. I think we've made that comparison a handful of times. Like, hey, maybe it's kind of like that.

And that's what it felt like because we even saw like a screen mixed in that was really good and sort of at the exact right time. And only this, instead of being sort of hogtied a little bit by Mike Zimmer saying you need to run sort of, um, hogtied a little bit by Mike Zimmer saying you need to run, run, run, uh, instead you had the opportunity for Kevin O'Connell to decide himself, but there were some second down runs that maybe you went like, I don't know, there was a fourth and short punt that maybe you could put the game away and you decide to punt and you go like, okay, well, okay.

Like, I don't think that they broke football today i i think that they just played overall the game that they have to play week in and week out and decided that like we're going to lean into the passing game at the key moments and not just try to like play it safe and play defense like the margin for last year even think about it when we talk about like how much different can it be and sometimes we act like they went 0-17 last year and not 8-9 and be like right on the cusp of several games that could have gotten them somewhere else. If only they had blank. If only they had finished off the Dallas game where they're ahead. If only they finish off a couple other ones where it's right there.

Baltimore, they're up by what, two scores in the second half. And when Green Bay scored, I thought, this is a great test for them. This is exactly what we want to know because the margin, everyone has done a good job getting Justin Jefferson the ball. No one has struggled with this as an offensive coordinator. That wasn't the question of Kevin O'Connell becoming the head coach. Could you get the ball to Justin Jefferson? It's more of,

are you going to lean into the Kirk, which we've been talking about for several years. And by the way, congratulations to us. The first time in purple insider history, Minnesota Vikings have been over 500. So, uh,

wow. What a moment it is for everybody, but also probably the first time when I said like, they, they put the gas pedal down, they really went and finish off this game and didn't give green Bay any chance whatsoever on offense. So I think that that's the number one story and how it carries over week to week is yet to be seen. But if you check off the boxes of what you needed to see, uh, I, I think that they really clicked every single one right and i think the

reasons you're outlining is kind of why i am bullish on the unit is because it was those small things like this wasn't the performance i don't think was like an outlier performance where there were 380 yard catches that are going to be high variance or dalvin cook ran for 200 yards or just things that just don't aren't just generally like we can count on those game to game I think generally you're going to be able to count on Justin Jefferson getting open so yeah I don't it's not going to go as great as it did today and I one thing that's going to be really important is how do they play when they're like behind in a negative game script type situation like they were winning the entire game and besides from the one time where they were deep in their

own end zone and were able to kind of get out of it like we're in pretty decent field position and didn't find themselves behind the sticks those are things that are just naturally going to happen like Kirk's going to get sacked on one of those first down plays and they're going to have a couple second and 16s instead of second and sevens or whatever they had today and so and that's where the one really shaky part of this group, the O-line, which survived today and looked decent in stretches and not decent in stretches, when it's in the negative game script and they're down and the team knows that they're going to have to pass, that's when this is going to get really interesting.

And what can O'Connell scheme up there? And what can Kirk and Justin Jefferson do there when pretty much everyone in the building knows you need to pass, you need to pass right now. Like there was none of that in this game. They did their opening game script to pretty much everyone in the building knows you need to pass, you need to pass right now. Like there was none of that in this game. They did their opening game script to pretty much perfection. They got a lead. They were able to build on that lead to get it to 10 points and two scores. And at that point, like you got the defense right where you want them

and you know you can do whatever you want. Like it's just not going to be the scenario that plays out every game. So where I think this is going to take a step back is when they're down or when teams kind of know what's coming today. I don't think because they were just up that that wasn't going to happen. So I think those are when the efficiency is going to start to go down and Kirk's going to throw some picks and things like that. If they're up 13, zero, 10, zero quick in the first quarter, every single game, then yeah, a lot of these games might look like this, but that's just not the reality.

So I think that's when things start to creep in. But from a game perspective of how things went today, I think this was sustainable. But yeah, I think as soon as some of those things start happening, people know they can expose Evan Ingram like the way that the Packers did a little bit today, that's where it's going to get dicey and where this team's probably going to regress a little bit. But still, I think their mark of how high a ceiling they have for me

jumped based on the performance that they had today. I think that that's a big takeaway for me is I'm more optimistic about the ceiling of this offense than maybe I was coming in. Folks, football season is here and you need more gear to represent Minnesota football. Adam Thielen, Randy Moss, John Randall, the Purple People Eaters, Bud Grant, all great designs from SodaStick that you can put on hoodies, hats, t-shirts. Go to SodaStick.com, S-O-T-A-S-T-I-C-K.com. Use the promo code Purple Insider to get 15% off your purchase. Well, and I also didn't think that it was a disaster by any means on the offensive line today.

I mean, I think I would probably, and we'll, we'll see what PFF says after looking at every play, but like I would give them a good grade for today. Certainly Kenny Clark at one point through Ed Ingram and Garrett Bradbury got beat by, I think they put Rashawn Gary over him at one point. Like, okay, well,bury got beat by, I think they put Rashawn

Gary over him at one point. Like, okay, well, that's a pretty tough matchup for him. And a lot of centers get beat. You know, I saw Twitter freak out the minute it happened and, and look, you should still be concerned about that because of what you said, like game script matters or like how the game situation matters to how the offensive line performs. The more you're ahead, the easier it is. But I talked to Brian O'Neill in the locker room for quite a while after the game and he was just saying like i think this can be better than what you've seen from us in years past and like sort of wink wink nod nod like our right guard isn't maybe a total disaster we'll see but i think that and not only that but ezra cleveland taking maybe another step. We'll see how that plays out.

But he was pretty confident that this unit, should it stay healthy, is going to be better than what we've seen the last few years. And I tend to agree with him based on the talent that they have. And they've drafted all of these players in the top two rounds, and they should be gelling and developing together. And I think we did see a good step there. I mean, ultimately, they ran the ball pretty well overall in the game. They didn't have any explosive runs,

but they ran it effectively when they needed to run the ball. The only thing that you just wonder about is like, there were opportunities for Green Bay to take advantage that they didn't when the Vikings had those moments where it was three and out, you know, the pressure on third down, and they just have to, you know, punt the ball away that there's a few little pockets in this game where that happened, where it was not perfect or where there was a second down run. And so now it's third and long and things that can be improved upon, or we'll just continue to

be shortcomings that they will have to overcome with the pure skill that they have. But overall, I mean, you probably couldn't have asked for much more from the offensive line either. Now, on the defensive side of the ball, sometimes a plan just comes together, right? Like everybody, I don't know how many phone interviews I did in Milwaukee and Green Bay and everything else this week. And what do you think the top question was? It was always like, so what's Z'Darrius Smith look like in training camp?

Is Z'Darrius Smith going to come out and get a revenge game? Now, I will still continue to not believe in revenge games because I think Z'Darrius Smith is just good at football. But man, was he Z'Darriusing today. And he's Z'Darriused all over the Green Bay Packers. I mean, it was a remarkable showing from the defensive line, from Daniil Hunter, who looked great in this game. They got some contributions from other guys where they from the defensive line, from Daniil Hunter, who looked great in this game. They got some contributions from other guys

where they rotated the defensive line. Aside from what should have been a 75-yard touchdown, the receivers were nowhere to be found. So the secondary got an overall good performance. Andrew Booth Jr. got banged up. We'll see where that goes. I have to wonder if that's going to be a thing. It's just going to

happen. But other than that, they come out of this game, as far as I know, very healthy. There weren't any Cam Bynum disasters as he's taking over that position full time. Harrison Smith made some phenomenal plays on this day. You know, the defense overall looked spectacular. And so my question to you is, is that what we think the Vikings defense is and can be, and they're going to play a good Philly offense that put up a lot of points next week. Or was it entirely like Rogers meltdown mode, similar to the 38,

three loss last year with new Orleans when they came out with week one, they don't have any receivers and he doesn't seem to know what to do with that. He's pointing at people. The broadcast is showing him on the sidelines, super upset. He's taking lots of hits, and he's throwing the ball away all the time during this game with no trust for his receivers at all. So was it on Rodgers' side helping the Vikings? Because it's easier to pressure him when he's screwing around back there,

not throwing the football. Or was it the Vikings' defense being very effective and causing Rodgers to feel that way? Yeah, I mean, with anything, it's a little bit of both. I may tend to go the Packers struggling. I mean, they were out David Bakhtiari, their left tackle, that seemed like he might be playing today. Eldon Jenkins was out as well.

Those are two, probably their best two offensive linemen out. And then, yeah, when your top receiver drops a would-be 75-yard touchdown immediately upon the game starting, like, that changes how you feel about everything. That changes your confidence. That just, like, is a major letdown because I'm sure that came early. That came in the script. They saw something they felt like they could take advantage of and they were about to take advantage of it I

mean Watson beat Patrick Peterson off the line and made him look silly there and then it didn't happen and now the Vikings have that on tape in an unsimilar situations even in that game they're able to adjust so this isn't me saying the Vikings defense had no impact I think when Z'Darrius Smith and Daniil Hunter are out there and when they're healthy that's always been the big if when they're healthy like this defensive line is going to get after some people um but I think with the injuries along the Packers offensive line and just the abysmal abysmal wide receivers that they have like this is probably like uh an artificial look at what this Vikings defense could look like. Because as I just mentioned,

Watson on that play cooked Patrick Peterson. He had a couple of times where Patrick Peterson was showing his age and showing why maybe he, the reason why he only got a one year, $3 million deal to come back like that was there. And so we saw those holes a little bit in the secondary. But I think if they're going to get away with those holes, it's going to be with a game that looks like this with an edge and a defensive line that looks the way this one does and so i think daniel hunter and zadaria smith are going

to get after the quarterback whether david bakhtiari is in there or not um obviously that helps them and that's going to be their way forward because i don't think the coverage should have or did do anything today to make me feel much more confident than I would have entering this game like this is probably what they should have done to that crop of receivers uh but the defensive line played better than I thought they were so next week against the Eagles is I do I think it's gonna be that easy when they have a really good offensive line and they have a threat like AJ Brown who then now you're putting Patrick Peterson or Cam Dantzler up,

like that makes me much more worried than when they're going up against, um, Romeo Dobbs and, uh, like the guys that they were trotting out there at like guys I had never heard of at some points during that Packers game. So I think it's a little bit of both. Um, but I do think the Packers situation artily artificially inflated the way we may look at this defense, even if the pass rush was encouraging, especially from the way it looked last year. And I'll be curious to look because we have this stat now, which is just like super helpful. How many of those pressures? I think I could get this that came within two and a half seconds like that happened really quick.

That's kind of the marker. If you have two and a half seconds to throw as a quarterback, you've got plenty of time back there. I thought there was a lot of times where Rogers did have time to throw, uh, and there were the quote coverage sacks, but it was like, is that a receiver sack or did they just, you know, really mess with the quarterback the way that Ed Donatello has talked about on numerous occasions of, Hey, we're going to show different looks and things like that. That's really hard to tell if that was the issue or if just receivers were not running the routes or if he didn't trust them. I mean, him getting a 75 yard touchdown taken off the board by the guy,

not catching the ball, Christian Watson just was like perfect for the Vikings to set the tone of the game because the best scenario was if Rogers didn't trust his receivers and then boom, right away, he does not trust his receivers for the rest of this game. Here's another point to be made though. And why, when we're talking about these systems that they have, how modern they are makes a difference, right? Like there's a reason something is modern. That means because it's advanced. That means because it's been studied and looked at they gave up over 100 yards on the ground today 6.2 yards per carry did not matter at all that they did that and that's the theory right it's like if you give up six yards of carry in 100 yards it's at times not going to feel very good and they scored their one touchdown in part

because they gave up the Vikings gave up a couple of huge runs, but it's very hard to beat a team by just running over and over and over again. And so the Packers couldn't really stick with it, especially since the Vikings offense put up some points, they could not stick with it. Then they were like, you were talking about circumstantially, they were put into these situations where the Vikings could just pass rush. They could just play the two deep safeties. They could play deep zones that help them out with these wide receivers. And they basically said, find your guy who's going to get open the way Devante Adams used to. And I see he was doing that for Derek Carr.

If Devante Adams is in this game, I do think it's a little different. I mean, I think that this is a much closer game. The Packers offense is much more successful, but I mean, wow. Sammy washed. Kins is out there running around. Like he made a catch, I think in the third quarter and I was like, oh yeah, he signed with them this year. Like what? Like, I mean, their, their efforts to replace Devante Adams, a second round pick who played for North Dakota, like no disrespect to my friends in North Dakota, but asking that guy to be Devontae Adams right away is a lot probably should have caught the 75 yard touchdown. Uh, Romeo dubs, like that guy is a fourth round draft pick again. Like you're not talking about a veteran receiver or even like a super, super high draft pick to step in right away. And that it was very clear that he was trusting his running backs, that he was trusting his tight end,

that he was trusting old Randall Cobb was still around in the NFL doing his thing. Those were the guys he was going to. And I think that that was very helpful for the Vikings defense. But as far as what criticisms you would have for the Vikings defense, I've got nothing. Like I really don't outside of the first play with that Christian Watson drop, I've got pretty much nothing. I mean, I would not, I would not critique too heavily them giving up yards on the ground because that's the theory. The theory is that that's okay. And I think that we've saw that play out. And every time you see a stat and we've mostly gotten rid of these that are like, Hey,

you know, when a team runs for over a hundred yards, there's 75 and 20 or something. And you're like, well, that's usually because they're already ahead because of the passing game. And this was, this was great evidence of that.

So I am willing to be a little cautious in declaring this suddenly a great defense. Um, especially because if you're rotating in a lot of James Lynch and DJ Wanham and Patrick Jones, I think on paper that seems like a good idea, but I'm not sure that you want too much of that. So I'll be curious to look at their snap counts for this game. But I thought I kind of saw a lot of James Lynch.

And yeah, I don't know if that's going to play game after game after game. And next week you said it, I mean, who's going to stop when the other team has a monster because this team has no monster. They have a very angry, miserable quarterback who didn't have the offensive lineman he trusted. And it really showed today. And that helped a lot. So it's, it's, it's always to be determined with the defense, but I also have nothing I want to say of like, well, you know, this was a clear weakness.

I mean, they played overall a fantastic game. Yeah. I mean, when they play the Eagles on Monday night, like the Eagles have three receivers that are better than anyone on green Bay. They have AJ Brown,

they have Devante Smith and they have like Dallas Goddard at tight end. I think I would rather have than anyone that the Packers are trotting out. They're leading. AJ Dillon was their leading receiver, had the most targets of six. Aaron Jones was second with five targets. Like your running backs were your top two targets. Robert Tunyon, your tight end also got five targets. Like that's not the recipe you want.

And it's just not. And for the Vikings, it plays into their hand because their biggest weakness on the defensive side of the ball is that coverage unit and we saw it in small bits and pieces and if andrew booth jr is out that means their depth is going to be tested even more uh to where caleb evans is playing you know um i don't even know who would come out there like josh matelis miles dorn like guys like that are getting more coverage opportunities at safety, at corner, wherever they're going. But yeah, when you're not going against Jawan Winfrey, who caught a ball for the Packers, I'm not sure if you're familiar with his work. I am not. Then things are going to change a little bit. And I would push back only slightly on the running. I know it's obviously not as important as passing and it's

certainly fine when the other team's passing offense is as abysmal as the Packers were today. But flipping it on the Vikings' side, one of the reasons Justin Jefferson was effective is because the Packers had to at least be known that they could run the ball and it would hurt them. And I think the Vikings are going to give up their yards. 6.2, as you pointed out, I think eight of their 18 carries went for first downs. That's not a good percentage, almost half. So yes, doesn't matter as much, even in the slightest as the passing defense, but they clearly tried to address it, getting Harrison Phillips in here and adding Jordan Hicks. And like they wanted to fortify the middle of the defense one to stop the run in part and through one game they didn't do that now AJ Dillon and Aaron Jones are probably

one of the best tandem of running backs you're gonna you're gonna face so this might be kind of the worst that unit looks just based on the runners they're going against um and again it's a nitpick for how the defense played today but I think it could impact them next week when Jalen hurts is running on the ground and miles Sanders is running on the ground and feels like they can't stop anyone. And then they're going over to the top to AJ Brown. Like it just adds, it's kind of like a little bit of a multiplier when other things aren't going

well. So yeah, when the passing offense isn't really working fine, you can run the ball and I'm not really going to care, but there are going to be opponents where both of them are working and they can't stop a thing. And the defense is just getting a second and four second and five, whenever they want to.

And that's not good. So yeah, not as big of a deal, but it is still slightly concerning that they've tried to address that area time and time again, the last couple of years and still haven't been able to do it. And we'll see if Harris Harrison Phillips helps improve that unit drastically as a whole,

but through one game, still a lot left to be desired with the run defense. I don't disagree. I just think that it's part of their overall strategy to not focus too much on the run. Not that you want to give up six yards a carry every game. Of course you don't. But if you're going to take that trade off of flustering the quarterback with your coverage versus giving up, you know, some big runs for first downs, you're going to take that because it's just so

hard. Now, the thing is that it sort of reminds me a little bit of some times last year where if you're playing from, from a head, you're great with that. Like, Oh yeah. Run the clock out on yourself. Thanks. Um, six yards to carry. Okay. Do it 15 times, right? Like, no, eventually you're going to have to throw the ball and we're just going to wait until you do that. I like that theory when you are losing that theory does not work. Uh, and you have to stop the run when you are down. We just have not seen that yet. And you are expecting more from the middle of the defensive line that's supposed to be improved. But even last year, like I looked at the numbers and how many expected points they gave

up it being the worst EPA run team. And it was like 40, you know, above like a replacement or average level. Like, okay, well over a season, you know, above like a replacement or average level. Like, okay, well over a season, 40 points being bad as a run defense. Isn't that, isn't that bad? If you're bad as a past defense, it's like, uh, 200, you know what I mean? Like it was just so much different. And so you'll take that all day. Um, and that might also, you know, come into play with some of the rotations. They want to keep these guys fresh, but, uh, you know, they don't really have a whole lot after. So again, it's sort of a give and take. Do you want your guys fresh for the biggest moments? Of course you do. So you're going to have to sacrifice at times that James Lynch, DJ Juan and Patrick Jones will have to be out there. Um, but, but overall,

yeah, I think it is a nitpick. Uh, if they had gone into this year saying it's all we want to do with our lives is stop the run. It's all we ever care about. Like that's, we're going to load the box. And then they ran for six yards. And I would say like, I don't know what's going on there, but this is kind of how they do it because it's like in basketball, you can't stop everything underneath and everything at the three point line. Like those two things are far away from each other. So you kind of have to decide, are we going to be a team that protects the bucket and gives up some threes or a team that protects the threes and sometimes gives up an easy bucket? I think that run and pass defense is kind of the

same way. So here's the big question though, because for Vikings fans, this is entirely check the first box, celebrate Packers week. When you go to the office, if you still go to the office or the zoom call or whatever, you've got the bragging rights. You feel very confident in the coaching staff from day one. You look at the roster and you're talking yourself into how strong it is. And you've got a good argument because a lot of people played well. It really, the question for me is about the other team. It's not even about the Vikings because everything that we talked about being possible, is it possible they could scheme well and throw it to Jefferson all the time and have a little bit better offensive line and have this a major concern for the Packers and thus opening the door for the Vikings to the division? The answer, I'm going to ban an answer from you. What's banned is we'll see.

Like you have to you have to pick. OK, so because obviously the answer is like Rogers is going to the hall of fame. And so he will probably find a way, or they're going to grind teams out and, and they'll beat the worst teams and everything else. I don't think they have a crazy schedule. So they'll probably still win some games. We're not going to declare it over yet, but totally banning the words. We'll see about this question. Uh, would you say that there should be serious concerns over in Packer land about whether they can compete for the division and win the division? Or is this just like today? It didn't go well for them. I think they should. I mean, I mean, we've harped on it many times,

but like the wide receivers are just not good. They're not good at all. And maybe they will improve. They're very young. The group is very young, and I'm sure Rodgers and the team will coach them up, but he doesn't have the quick eight-yard slant route and out route to Devonta Adams whenever he wants it like he's gotten in the past, and I think it's a major challenge for this team when they just have seemingly no talent. When your top two target getters or you're running back, that's just not the place you want to be as an offense. And yeah.

Okay. Maybe they figure it out a little bit, but division games are big and especially a division game against the team that you're probably fighting the division for. Like this is one feather in the cap for the Vikings, a big feather in their cap as they move forward. And I think it immediately puts the pressure on the Packers. Now they have the bears next week.

That probably helps them home opener against the bears. Aaron Rogers in his famous words, he owns them or whatever it is. I think he cussed. We're not going to do that, but like then they go to Tampa. So that immediately is going to get tested again. And I just don't think like if they can't

expose this group of corners, like there aren't that many groups that are that like worse than the Vikings in terms of just talent on the outside. Like they're going to run up into a lot of guys that are going to lock them down with pass rushes that are strong. And so I think it does really put into doubt whether they're going to win the division. I, I'm not ready to say they're going to lose the division, but I, I don't necessarily think this is a blip on the radar. Um, we've seen those games happen before. I think it happened to them last year against the saints. Uh, it's happened to other big teams in the past and they figured out the bills last year. Uh, but I think one thing about those teams is you felt really good about

the talent on the roster if they just figure out the talent then it'll all come together and over the course of a 17 game season usually it does the packers don't have the talent so even if they figure it out i don't know how much better it gets because i just don't think the ceiling on these wide receivers are that outstanding and clearly rogers pace patience for them is not great and so he has the type of personality to where if this isn't going well a couple weeks in like it's not just going to be all roses over there like you're going to hear about it from him you're going to be able to tell from the body language of him and the receivers so yeah i i have major concerns and it mostly stems from the

offensive side of the ball because that's never been a question before for them. And now it feels like a serious question. And how patient is Rogers going to be at this point in his career, I think is also a question as well. Like if they don't turn it around right away with a couple of wins in a row after this, uh, is just going to kind of start drinking his psychedelic tea and not really care? I mean, they do have some easy opponents coming up. It's Chicago, Tampa. Then they go New England, who look disastrous, both New York teams, and then Washington.

So they play one playoff team in their next six games, but they have some let's get it right time before then they play Buffalo in week eight. So they, I mean, it wouldn't surprise me at all if they won out, but the way they look today, like they've got to improve some things to even beat some of those bad teams, uh, because it's, it's not looking great. Yeah, no, I agree that they've got to figure out who they're going to throw the ball to who's going to be their guy. And, uh, not knowing that today resulted in a huge win for the Vikings. But another part, another reason to sort of slow the roll a little bit, I think you're absolutely right to say this is a major concern. This is not like,

oh, it's Rogers. I mean, I'm not going to count them out, but I'm also going to say that this is a big thing to overcome because you don't have that player who you know is just going to show up and do it like Devontae Adams. I also think that the league is showing us by the way they're paying receivers that the league also believes these receivers are driving the success of entire franchises. And just the Jefferson, I mean, my gosh, like if anybody is evidence of that, it's Jefferson who drove the entire offense to a victory today. So I think it is a major, major concern for them.

I'm not ready to throw dirt on the grave, especially because the Vikings have beat the Packers each of the last two years in decisive fashion in 2020 in Lambeau and then here last year in a very good victory for the Vikings. So it's not like they never do this. They do beat the Packers sometimes Sometimes it's, um, that's what, that's what rivalry games are. Uh, I wanted to talk real quick about the funniest moment of the game for me that no one online seemed to really care about, but I was laughing hysterically. Uh, also want to mention T-Pain was great at halftime

shout out T-Pain. Yeah. All right. Look, look, if you think T-pain is not good go watch his tiny desk concert that he did uh for npr and then tell me that t-pain is not a great singer so he put on a show here at halftime i'm just saying was there there was a i don't know if you can confirm this was he playing at the halftime of the miracle game i think that was floating on twitter that he, that he was also the performer during the NFC NFC game against the saints, obviously. And so that was the case. Great. Whoever brought him in just like great vibes and juju there. Um, then you just got to keep bringing in T-Pain. Um, but it sounds like it went well. So I don't think anyone would be, would be necessarily mad if he came, came out three more times this year. They also up uh 17 nothing at half

against the new orleans saints only this went much smoother the funniest moment is when ryan wright punted the ball and straight karate kicked a dude and he bounced off like a cartoon blue and that guy got penalized this is like thick punter did thick punter things in this first game. Ryan, right. The indestructible punter. That was incredible. I watched it like 14 times.

I was just like, how is everyone not talking about this? This is the most insane. It was the most insane thing I've ever seen. He didn't even like recoil. It was just out there. And it's like the guy, like it didn't even seem like his foot was like affected.

It's like, oh, okay. No, like you're just going to move. Like I'm not, I'm not going to get pushed back at all. And you're still going to fall on the ground. It's like, no, my leg's going to be straight. You're going to hit it.

And then you're going to balloon out to the side. And I'm just going to keep running and like, not even think about getting a penalty. Like, I don't even know if he felt it. I don't know. It might've just bounced right off him. That guy, it was like the matrix with like neo kicking somebody maybe we know why he won the punt off now like there was some like back room wrestling

happening oh that could be or like they didn't want to cut him like if they like quacey and kevin were like scared like if they told him they were gonna cut him he was gonna drop kick him or something like i don't know i don't know he's he's a meaty punter i will. Having stood next to him, he's the biggest punter I've ever seen, for sure. There's some really jacked punters that are strong or really athletic, but that is a thick punter. Anyway, so that was the funniest moment of the game today, aside from all of Aaron Rodgers' faces. Look, here's the thing.

This show is unbiased toward players, but if your opinion of Aaron Rogers is that he is one of the most obnoxious people alive, I'm not going to fight you on it. So that's, that's all I'm going to say there. I am not going to argue with that opinion. We'll argue a lot of things on Twitter. You tweet me that I'm not, we're just going to move forward. We're not going to move on from that. So anyway, quite the victory for the Vikings start of the season. And the Purple Insider Show, me, will be, and you, well, okay. Mostly you.

The phrasing of this. I will be in Philadelphia. You will be. You will be in the same spot you are usually. But next week, I just got done booking my trip to Philly. So I will be there for that game week to a huge one for the Vikings. You start out two and oh, then get the lions here at home and you are off and running in the season. Uh, we kind of thought that the start of the year would really define who this team was going to be. They need a big win,

um, for next week, but what a day for Vikings fans today. So we will have all sorts of coverage as always, every single day here on the show fans only questions, feel free to send them purple insider.com or send me DMS on Twitter. There will be more of those episodes this week. And if you haven't caught the new show, hot routes, a new episode of that's reacting to everything. Week one will be out on Tuesday afternoon. So go subscribe.

It's spelled with a Z hot routes with a Z. There were other shows called hot routes, but this is the best one. So it has a Z. So thank you for all your time, Paul. And you and I will talk again very soon.