Purple Insider - a Minnesota Vikings and NFL podcast - The Vikings absolutely have to beat the Skylar Thompson Dolphins

Episode Date: October 14, 2022

Matthew Coller and Sports Illustrated's Will Ragatz talk about a crazy Danielle Hunter stat, whether Ed Donatell needs to change things up against a third-string QB, Skayler Thompson's wikipedia page and movies set in Miami Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Purple Insider presented by Liquid Death. Go to liquiddeath.com slash insider and learn about the Tallboy can, which actually has water. Find out where you can get it near you at liquiddeath.com slash insider. Hello and welcome to another episode of Purple Insider. Matthew Collar here along with Will Raggetts of Sports Illustrated and Will having just left the Minnesota Vikings locker room. What a jovial place to be on earth. The Minnesota Vikings are 4-1. Everybody's happy.

They're talking about the next steps for their offense, for their defense. Matt Daniels copped to having a very bad special teams day and even explained what happened on the 15-yard punt. Would you like to start there? Do you want me to tell you what happened in the 15-yard punt? Please do. Okay. So there's a couple of different ways that ryan wright can punt the ball depending

on where they're standing on the field and one of those ways is to do a high end over end kick and the goal is to have it bounce near the goal line and either pop straight back up or back toward the coverage unit and they were in an in-between area. So Matt Daniels told Ryan Wright that he, if he was going to do an end over end that he needed to like, give it his old college try, like put all 258 pounds behind it. So he tried to boot it too hard and anybody who's a golfer, and I know you're not well, but they totally understand this. Oh, you know what? I'm going to pull out the four iron instead of the hybrid. I think I can reach over that lake there.

And whoops, I swung super hard and then just shanked it into the woods. So that is what happened on the 15-yard punt. Thank goodness they were accountable for that. And that was kind of a, I mean, it was easy to overlook at the time in a 21-3 game. But when you look at reasons why the Bears got back into that game, if that doesn't happen, maybe it never becomes the stressful finish that it ended up being.

Because there was a holding penalty on that play as well, I believe, and they netted five yards on that. And then it was the Darnell Mooney catch and the touchdown before the end of the half. So that is good that they explained what happened, because Matt Daniels' special teams have been awesome this year. They were not very awesome against the Bears. But, I mean, yeah, I wasn't there today. I was there yesterday, so I can attest to the general vibes of the locker room.

And this week sets up kind of interestingly in that ever since the Lions win, we've had the same conversation for the past three weeks. Like, okay, the Vikings won a game, but are they good? And we really haven't learned that in each of the last three games. We know that they are capable of pulling out close games against inferior teams. The Saints were the best team of the last three they've faced, but they were starting a backup quarterback. And this week it sets up with Skylar Thompson, the third string rookie for the Dolphins set to get the start. The Vikings could be five and one going into their bye week. And we may still not know if they're good or not.

We might still not know if they're good. Like it's a weird place to be in right now. Yeah. Let me, let me comment on that. But first I did want to say that if everybody handled every mistake in football, the way Matt Daniels did, where he just said, Oh yeah, this is kind of what happened on that play and why it went wrong. It would be so much easier to do our jobs all the time. Although I think that the Vikings have been

good about that, but it's amazing. Like it just works. You just say, here's what happened. You all saw it. It wasn't good. And there you go. But to your point, if they're five and one, they are good. And I think we know enough players on the team and their histories to say that it's not a total fluke. Like Justin Jefferson, good at ball. Kirk Cousins has done this before. Adam Th at, you know, Adam Thielen, Jordan Hicks, Eric Kendricks. These are all veteran players, Patrick Peterson. It's really, to me, the question is going to be, are they good enough?

Because I think that the schedule in the second half, though, it does have some pitfalls. It has pitfalls, but also has other teams that you should definitely be like, what's Indianapolis going to look like by the time you face them and so forth. You're facing Chicago again. It's not so much of a cruise though. So if you get through this and you provide yourself a bumper, you're probably too far ahead. If you get to five and one,

six and one, seven and one or six and two, you're too far ahead to just collapse and entirely miss the playoffs with so many mediocre teams. But are you legitimately competitive? Because the feeling in 2019, and I think that roster was better than this roster in 2019, the feeling was, yes, they are going to the playoffs, but they're not good enough to go all the way through the playoffs. And that came to fruition in the second game. They had to pull it out right at the end against new Orleans with the throw to

Kyle Rudolph. And then what happened in San Francisco was no surprise to anybody because it's what happened to them every time they faced a good team. And so the problem is they won't face good teams from Philadelphia all the way to Buffalo. So week two to November 13th, there's not a single team in there that you say is a really good test. And that's where I think the challenge is. It's not figuring out like, okay, can they play? Can they be a playoff team?

It's really, can they be one of the better teams in the NFL? Yeah, I didn't mean that to suggest like they might still be bad. I think we're past that. You don't get to four and one by being a bad team like bad teams like the Vikings over the last couple years find ways to lose these games but you're right it's a question of are they kind of what we expected them to be this year which was maybe a decent team and they've just gotten some breaks to go their way or are they legitimately a team that could make a deep run into the playoffs and contend and yeah I guess depends how you feel about the Arizona Cardinals who I think are two and three right now but have some

have some talent or maybe supposed to be better than than they currently look um that's the game after the bye week but you're right like they could be six and two seven and one and go into Buffalo and if they hang in that game if that's even like close I think that's a great great sign and we're getting a little ahead of ourselves here but you could also walk in that game, if that's even like close, I think that's a great, great sign. And we're getting a little ahead of ourselves here. But you could also walk into that game feeling really good about yourself and just get smacked by the Bills. And then it's like we're going to have a whole different conversation. But, yeah, this week is interesting because Vikings fans and you have undoubtedly learned this over your time on the beat and especially in recent years. Just a very jaded bunch and looking

at the twitter mentions on Wednesday when it was kind of announced that Skylar Thompson was going to start there's no reaction like oh good a rookie a seventh rounder like oh this should help the Vikings win there was very little of that it was all career game incoming like he's going to torch Ed Donatel's defense like it's just kind of funny to me and and i understand where it's coming from when we've talked about this before there are a lot of losses to to backup quarterbacks to point to but it is objectively a good thing that the vikings are not facing to a tag of iloa because man this dolphins offense the first three weeks of the season looked like an absolute wagon and you started to even when looking at the viking schedule like first couple weeks of the season when they an absolute wagon. And you started to even when looking at the Viking schedule,

like first couple of weeks of the season, when they were doing what they were doing in Miami, you started to look like, man, that Tyreek Hill, Jalen Waddle, that speed is going to be a problem for this Vikings defense and these cornerbacks. And it still will be. I mean, those two are expected to play. I believe Hill had a little foot injury, but he's supposed to play. But when you have a rookie seventh round quarterback like it becomes much harder for them to get the ball and for for those two speedsters to kind of

be properly utilized and become a big part of the game plan and and really a dangerous threat so it's a good thing it's also good i think that they're not facing teddy bridgewater because he's the type of like experienced veteran that could just get the ball to his playmakers and and dink and dunk his way down the field like we saw Andy Dalton do and we've seen Jared Goff do and uh I guess we don't really know what to expect from Skyler Thompson he had a good preseason he was okay I guess being thrust into action last week against the Jets in a game that where they got blown out but he can he, he can move a little bit and he can, he's an NFL quarterback, which is what the Vikings said this week. Like you can't overlook that, but for all the, all the jadedness aside, it is objectively a good thing for the Vikings chances of winning that they are facing a seventh round rookie making his first career start.

Yeah. And there is a conversation to be had here. Like if they don't win this game, like how much is too much reaction? Because I mean, really, if you look at the roster and some of the weaknesses that they have and some of the close games that they've played, you could really say, how is this different?

How is it different playing close games against mediocre teams that it always has to come down to a final drive. And last year they lost more than they won but they were really close to winning more than they lost like they were a field goal miss at the end they were a fumble at the end they were like these these minuscule things that have gone their way so far but they were this close to having this same stuff happen just last year and what we know about that is it usually kind of comes back around the other way. Now, last year it didn't really, but they got, you know, a close win against Carolina.

There were a couple other ones where they came through and ended up getting those close wins, but they were teams that even Kirk Cousins talked about this week, the last two years, that they were one game away from being in the playoffs. They just needed this one win or that one win and they didn't get it. And just needed this one win or that one win, and they didn't get it. And now that you have this cushion, well, that really helps them, but it's not like they never went four and one in any other section of time that they played in the last few years. So it's kind of like, because they started out one in five and then won a bunch of games that year to get back to 500 in 2020, kind of forget like, oh, yeah, they were just bad and playing from behind.

But the other side of that can come to get you at any time. And we probably shouldn't assume that any of these are going to be wins. I think that if they do lose this game and it's plausible, I mean, you mentioned the weapons, the weather, the fact that this is two weeks removed from going to London, coming back, playing a really close and physical game against Chicago, then traveling. These guys have got to be worn down at this point. So if they do lose, I think that it will be... I once covered... Well, no, wait, I didn't cover Mike Malarkey in Buffalo, but I just lived there when he

was the head coach. And he once said it took the sails out of the wind. You're like this, this would be sails out of the wind. I mean, when, cause when you get a break of this magnitude, this isn't just Teddy playing where you could say, well, the guy's a 500 backup quarterback. So, you know, okay. But if it's Skylar Thompson, which I have his Wikipedia up and we're going to take a look through in a minute, then, then I think that a lot of all the things that they've sort of built up as narratives to this like hey we work on situations all the time we're clutch and we're almost there on offense and we're almost

there on defense because that has been the big thing this week it's like we're just almost there for close to putting together a complete game and then then on defense, like Ed Donatell has talked about the guys are getting it. They're almost there. And if so, that's what you're saying. You have to win this game or then you go into the buy with everybody going, it's going to be one of those years, isn't it? We're just going to go up and down and ride the roller coaster all the way to the end and then not really be good enough. So this is another one where it's like, if you're good enough, then you just take care of business, even though it's on the road and there are some things going against you because the other team is playing QB three. Yeah. It's, it's weird to say about a four in one team, but I absolutely agree that like,

this is a measuring stick game that they should win. And if they lose and they're four and two, it would not be the end of the world. You, you built up some victories to be able to kind of withstand that. It would just change the conversation and the feeling about the team. I think pretty drastically at heading into a bi-week and having two whole weeks to kind of ruminate on just losing to Skylar Thompson and what that would, what that would mean and what it would look like for that to happen. Versus if you win your five and one, even if it's not like a super convincing win

and they do another one of these weird escapes at the end of the game like you're still five and one and the feeling can still be we're close to making these more comfortable and we're we're putting these things together and um i think the defense is going to be obviously kind of the key thing to watch because we know what to expect for the most part from this Vikings offense we know who Kirk Cousins is we know who Justin Jefferson is Dalvin Cook playing his first NFL game in Miami is kind of a cool story and then there's some real tangible improvement that we can see on the offensive line like Christian Derrissaw looks like an all-pro type of player we'll see if that can continue but defensively is where I think a lot of the kind

of frustration and consternation with the fan base is right now. And it's like the lack of adaptability, the lack of kind of adjustments. I think people are generally not really thrilled with Ed Donatel and what this defense has done so far. And just in the fact that it kind of keeps trying to do the same thing and it hasn't really worked so I'm curious to see again I mean they've talked about like the scheme works it's just the players need to get more comfortable and get more used to it but to me this is the perfect opportunity facing a seventh round rookie quarterback who I believe part of the scouting report on him is that he's athletic,

but part of that is he's going to, at the kind of the first sense of pressure, he's going to maybe panic and run around in the pocket and get himself sacked or try to take off or not let those routes downfield kind of develop enough with patience. So to me, like send pressure at him. I mean, the Vikings are still towards the bottom of the league in blitz percentage at like 19% or something along those lines. I would send a lot of pressure at him and try to confuse him and try to force him into some mistakes. And, I mean, if you let him be comfortable, like, he's capable of getting the ball to Tyreek Hill and Jalen Waddell. And Raheem Mostert, their running back, has looked really strong the last couple weeks. Like, the team still has the weapons to do some interesting things on offense, no matter who the

quarterback is. So I'm curious to see how Donatello and we've been saying this for a few weeks now, but I'm curious to see how Donatello kind of adjusts things if he does. And think about the mediocre quarterbacks that this team has made look pretty decent by not pressuring them this year and beyond. I mean, Andy Dalton looked great in the second half of that game for the saints. And even last week, like Justin Fields. So going into the game, I was like, I don't know, man. I just think that Justin Fields looks about as bad as you can possibly look. And his offensive line, when I watched the game bag, the offensive line was brutal for the bears. And yet still they didn't do enough to make him uncomfortable.

They got a sack here, there and a pressure here, there. But it was not enough to hold him down for four quarters. So now you're facing a third string quarterback and you're saying, well, OK, it's third string quarterback. He can't do anything. But Justin Fields have been playing like a third string quarterback. And then all of a sudden looks like, you know, he's a Mike Vick at the end of that game against the Vikings. So there's almost no quarterback that the Vikings defense in the last couple of years can't make look very competent. But, you know, I think that it's also really interesting about Donatello where on the offensive side with Kevin O'Connell, it's all about we're adjusting

to the players. I asked Justin Jefferson this today, like what's the communication like? And he said that he in the Lions game went over to Kevin O'Connell and said, you've got to start moving me around more, putting me in motion, getting me in the slot, getting me away from these corners. And over the last couple of weeks, that's his explanation for why he's been more open is that they've done that. And I think that that's like a staple of what Kevin O'Connell wants to be as an offensive coach is, is be adaptable and under an, an Adam Thielen kind of explained that he tries to look at everything through the eyes of different positions, through the eyes of the offensive line, through the eyes of the wide receivers and what works for them.

That does not seem to be the case on defense. On defense, it's like I'm coaching this scheme and you do what you're supposed to do. And if you blow it, then I'm going to say that it was you who blew it and not me not doing enough. I agree with you that it's time to start attacking. The only thing is I just, I'm a little hesitant to say that changing that and putting the top receivers one-on-one with anybody is a good idea.

Especially because Waddle and Tyreek Hill, they'll go into the slot quite often. And the Vikings' biggest weakness, I think by far, has been Shannon Sullivan. And if that's who they're going to attack, you really want to avoid him being one-on-one because even then it's like, if the pressure doesn't get there and throw off Skylar Thompson, then you're talking about, you know, big plays potentially happening against them. So I think that'll be, that'll be a balance, but with this Donatello defense, the, the bend don't break stuff. It is largely kind of not broken, but it also has not done anything to be game changing, which is really the opposite of last year. Last year, they had a lot

of game changing plays, tons of sacks, lots of interceptions, but on a play to play basis, they struggled and couldn't stop the run. And this year they're more of struggling on a play to play basis where teams are having long drives and everything else against them. So I don't really expect them to change anything though. It seems like they're kind of going to say, we're going to live and die with playing this way and we'll just see how it goes. But I think if your whole thing is adaptability, they haven't really done a whole lot to be adaptable on the defensive side. Yeah, I think there's kind of a balance where you don't want to leave your corners, especially Channing Sullivan or whoever it is, Patrick Peterson, Cam Dantzler,

like on an island with these ridiculously fast Dolphins receivers. You want to have safety help and kind of shade them and have some double teams at times. But you can still, I think, allocate more resources from your front to creating pressure to some extent. And yeah, you're right. It's just been like the plan has been kind of confusing to me at times in terms of you would like to identify everything that your players are good at defensively and then put them in the best possible situations to succeed. And there was a third down play in that bears game where they send they put in Brian Asamoah who played the rookie who played his first six defensive

snaps of his career in that in that Bears game and they send him blitzing and then they dropped Daniil Hunter into coverage and like I think that was the only snap he did that but that still feels like one snap too many and he didn't get to the right depth or whatever it was and Justin Fields hit Cole Komet the tight end for like a 20-yard gain and a conversion on third and 10 and that to me just felt like I don't know trying to get too cute I don't know if that's the right way of putting it but just not putting your players in the like situations and in the spots to do what they do best and have the most success possible. And the Neil Hunter thing remains really intriguing to me because he had a sack early in that game, but it was kind of like a 2021 DJ Wanham sack where he just kind of cleaned up after DJ Wanham, of all people, like looked like the Daniel Hunter on that play and beat the

tackle to the edge. And Ross Blacklock, of all people, made a nice pass rush move to get an interior pressure and force fields up to the edge and Ross Blacklock of all people made a nice pass rush move to get an interior pressure and force fields up in the pocket but yeah the Hunter thing like I think we saw that sack and we're like oh he's back but you watch the tape and then look at some of the PFF numbers and he wasn't very impactful once again and he just has not really looked like the Daniel Hunter that we've kind of come to expect and i know there's been some injuries but i mean last year before uh the second kind of season ending injury he was really really good for the first seven games of last season and the vikings defense kind of followed his lead for the most part like he was a catalyst of their defensive success and now he doesn't need to be

because they have zadaria smith and they have some more talent in the middle. Harrison Phillips and Dalvin Tomlinson have been playing really well. But he is counted on to be a big, big part of this pass rush because those two interior guys, that's not what they're known for. And it just hasn't really been happening that much. And Donatel said last week before the Bears game that this takes time and this is everyone who makes this transition. But, yeah, you'd like to see it start kind of coming to fruition more this week against the bears game that this, this takes time and this is everyone who makes this transition. But yeah, you'd like to see it start kind of coming to fruition more this week

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death at your local target whole foods market or hy-v or find a liquid death retailer near you with their store locator tool at liquid death.com slash insider that's liquid death.com slash insider so i do have a theory on this after watching the game back started to develop this theory and and by the way so he is is in the mid pack in the NFL by PFF grade, which is not where you expect him to be. But by their metrics, it hasn't been a travesty. But by ESPN, their pass rush win rate, also combined with how rarely he's been double teamed,

like opponents have handled him mostly with one player this year. It's legitimately concerning my theory and this has not been corroborated is that when Daniil Hunter is in a three-point stance and he's right face to face with the tackle that he can get his hands on that guy very quickly and use the power in his arms. And if you've seen photographs of Daniil Hunter or stood near him, the power in his arms is bananas. And so he can use that long arm technique and then work off of that. Everything comes off of him getting his hands on the offensive tackle. But when you are the wide player, when you're the wide nine or the nine technique which means you're way outside you're standing up you're way outside it usually is burst and bent and i don't know that his burst is quite like a vaughn miller he's kind of on the heavier side now with like all the muscle he's put on over

the years like whatever he's listed at the at the draft it's probably more than that and he's never been this like unbelievable burst player. He's fast, but he's not like, there's just this lightning quick reaction-ness. If you ever watched Jared Allen from back in the day, he just had this lightning quick reaction. It was unbelievable to watch. I don't think that that's the Neil Hunter. And so this is where it is at Donatello going to kind of just keep rolling with this, or

is he going to actually bring him back down to three-point stance more often put him right over that tackle have that collision right away where hunter can work off of it i think that might be a potential solution i'm not saying that with a ton of confidence it just is what it kind of looks like and if it's not a fit then man they have to rotate more to dj want them which is like the weirdest thing i've ever said on the show but that's that that could that could actually be the case as they go along because everything kind of rests on that front front four uh delvin thomason to tomlinson has been phenomenal this year just absolutely terrific like pro bowl caliber so far this season. But that's,

that's a lot week in and week out to rely so much on a guy who's never played more than like 600 and something snaps. They need it to be Zedaria Smith and Daniil Hunter. And we won't really find that out this week, probably, but over the long run, if we get halfway through the season and we're still seeing these same things, then we're going to have to ask, is it him? Is it an adjustment? What exactly is happening here? Because it was another week where it was kind of unimpressive against Chicago. I'm right there with you on your theory. There's a lot of times when you watch the tape of these games and Tennille Hunter is just kind of spread out wider than you think maybe makes sense. And then he has to take kind of this meandering path to the quarterback where he maybe gets chipped by a tight end who then is running a flat route or

something. And then he has to like burst up to the tackle and then try to get around the tackle. And then by that time, like the quarterbacks probably throwing the ball because quarterbacks don't hold the ball for more than three seconds in the NFL, unless they're like Justin Fields, which he actually did a decent job of not doing last Sunday. So, yeah, I'm with you. I think you want him like tighten his splits a little bit in terms of his alignment.

Get him going against the tackle. And we talk about this like he went against three straight, really good right tackles from weeks two to four in the season. But last week he was going against like Larry Borum of the Bears bears who is just like a guy and still wasn't super impactful and this week i think the dolphins right tackle is greg little who sure like he's just another guy so yeah that's there's going to be a lot that we we talk about and kind of reflect on and then project forward once we get to this bye week and if daniel hunter doesn't have like a real impact and kind of reflect on and then project forward once we get to this bye week and if daniel hunter doesn't have like a real impact and kind of a noticeable impact on this game i think that's going to be one of the top talking points the whole bye week like is this defense a fit for him

or like is there a place where once he gets more comfortable with it which is what don't tell said that he becomes this this really impactful player in this defense, or is that not even a realistic kind of match in terms of his skill set and how it fits in this scheme? So I don't know. That's something that I'll be watching pretty closely this week for sure. So what do you know about Skylar Thompson? So I know he went to Kansas State.

Correct. Which is in the Big 12. That's also true. And played against like a couple of Vikings defenders, like Ross Blacklock, Brian Asamoah, in the Big 12. I know he played really well in the preseason. I was looking up those stats. He had five touchdowns, no interceptions,

and had some flashes where you were like, how did this guy last to the seventh round? And I think that's probably about it. Well, he's from Palmyra, Missouri. So, you know, a shout out to our Palmyra listeners there in Missouri. In college, he was named the scout team player of the year in his first year. So I think it was his first year that he was named that as a freshman yeah yeah after red shirting so that's got to be like what's the what's the silliest

award you've ever gotten in your life like like scout team player of the year and i'm sure that all the football people would be like hey that's important the scout team that i get okay it does but come on we're giving out awards for that All the toughest people in the world always give out participation trophies, by the way. They say, oh, don't give kids participation trophies. Hey, Billy, Scout Team Player of the Year. Yeah, that's kind of a pointless award. I get why you would do it to, like, keep the Scout Team players motivated

so they have an award to strive for. But it does seem a little bit silly. I would, I would agree with that. And speaking of the Viking scout team, I think David Blau is there, is there Skylar Thompson this week. So they're getting a real good,

real good look. So they're really ready. Cause that's a QB three. If I've ever seen one, that's what this kind of reminds me of is when the lions came in with david blau you kind of went like i don't think that can this team is more talented than that lions team but there are similarities including that miami's defense is horrendous which we'll get to in a second but uh more on on skylar thompson i am reading his wikipedia page uh let's see became the full-time

starter at kansas state as a, but was plagued by injuries. Oh, just what Miami needs is another injured quarterback. Teddy's going to be the backup, right? The only reason Teddy's not starting is because he has to stay in the protocol until maybe Friday, so he can't fully practice. So they're taking QB3 with practice versus QB two with no practice. That's my understanding of it. It's a weird situation where like they expect Teddy to be active and to be the

backup, but they're not going to start him because yeah, you won't have had any reps all week, which to me, I would, I would maybe trust like a veteran like Teddy off of minimal to no practice over a seventh round rookie who's was played. I mean, his entire regular season experience was last week against the jets after Teddy got hurt on the first play of the game.

So yeah, it's, it's kind of a weird thing. It seems like if Teddy's going to be active, you might as well play him, but maybe they really like Skylar Thompson. Oh, well,

the other part of it could be too, that Miami knows that the world is watching how they handle these things, which was very strange. They were talking about Tua being out of the concussion protocol and, or they expect him to be, but he's not going to play, which is also like, well, isn't that the whole point though? Like they're, they're really just trying to let it blow over. It seems. And the Vikings are the beneficiary like yeah they just don't want to be roasted for bringing him back again too early tua was listed as limited i believe not out on the on the practice report on wednesday could they be sandbagging i i don't know that's what i was

thinking about with the i there's been reports today that dac prescott practiced and i was like going down this rabbit hole of thought like would there be a way for it to be enforced by the NFL or something if the Cowboys were like Cooper Rush is gonna start and then last minute they're like actually Dak Prescott's gonna start to like mess with the Eagles I don't I don't know how that would work because I guess you have to like there's the reason the injury reports exist you have to report a player's level of practice but like what if dak prescott just came out and practiced after the portion that is open to media and they didn't put it on the injury like i don't know how that would work but i don't think we're going to see two of this week because they want

to be very careful about uh the optics of it all after really mishandling that initially. That's what I think it is. But it would be interesting if, because there's no penalty for lying. Yeah. Like, oh, Mike McDaniel's been fined $250,000 for not saying the truth about who's starting at a certain position. Mike Zimmer would have gotten fined a lot of money if that was an option on the table. Right. So I suppose that it's not completely impossible,

but I still expect Skylar Thompson to start, which is why we're going through his Wikipedia. There's a little bit here that looks like Skylar Thompson's mom may have contributed when it says, when Skylar was healthy, he played very well and has since been considered one of the best quarterbacks in the history of Kansas state football. Name another Kansas state football quarterback will go. I have one.

Oh my goodness. I can like picture a Kansas state quarterback, but I can't think of their name. Give me, just give me one. There was a guy who was drafted by the new England Patriots, who was ahead of Tom Brady on the depth chart, briefly out of Kansas state by the name of Michael Bishop, Michael Bishop. I kid you not had one of the greatest arms I have ever seen in my life. The whole thing was

like they could, he could throw it 75 yards in the air or whatever. And so there was much more discussion about Michael Bishop than there was Tom Brady back in the day. Uh, but that is it. That is it for me. I know who their quarterback is now. Cause it's Adrian Martinez. Let's say, Oh, we've got an article from 24 seven7 sports uh let's see gather around the fire okay oh come on i just looked it up i just looked at you probably just saw the same one as me yeah there's an easy one that i'm sure everyone was yelling that we were missing and it wasn't michael bishop is josh josh freeman yeah okay i was gonna quiz you on that if you had not yet found that that is the guy that i was like it was on it was on the tip of my tongue and i couldn't couldn't think of who was viking legend uh steve grogan way back in the day was a nfl quarterback i don't know some

of these other people lynn dickey started for the packers before they were like the packers uh and had all their great quarterbacks before they had two mvp hall of fame quarterbacks for 35 years in a row oh a former viking chad may chad may who else is excited chad may chad may is the according to this article the most impactful kansas state quarterback ever and was a minnesota viking in 1995 He did not actually play in any NFL games, but he was a Minnesota Viking. So there is a deep rooted Skylar Thompson connection here. Several of them with the Viking. Yeah. I mean, that works. Josh Freeman had one of the, maybe the single worst Minnesota Vikings quarterback performance that i've ever that i can remember at least there may have been bad ones in the the 1970s and 1980s but

josh freeman on monday night football against the giants i believe was an absolute disaster it looked like he had no idea what he was doing so that's the history of uh kansas state quarterbacks and their connections to the minnesota vikings it's, it's beautiful. And if you're wondering his Skylar Thompson's wiki ends with the reason they kept him on the roster was because of how well he played in the preseason and NFL.com said that he was predicted to be an undrafted free agent because of his quote, lack of consistent production as a passer. So that's promising. He's not very big. He ran a four nine. He's not consistent as a passer. And the, you know, the only experience he has is getting his tail whooped by the New York jets. So there's really nothing here to say as terrified as everybody is of Skylar Thompson putting up a crazy good game.

There's, there's nothing here to say that that should happen is the point. So if it does happen, then I think that like all those fears that you were alluding to are really justified because a lot of people are still concerned that the defense is just not good enough. And if this guy can succeed, then this defense is not good enough. No, absolutely. I mean, it's one thing to go against a backup quarterback who has been around and was a former starter like Andy Dalton. Or even like if this was going to be like a Chase Daniel or a Matt Moore type of guy. Somebody who has played NFL football and understands it at a high level and maybe just has like the physical deficiencies, the reason why

they're not a starter. This guy, it seems like Skyler Thompson has some maybe physical talent, just not consistent at all as a thrower of the football. and then the understanding of playing the position in the NFL is not really there. So like, yeah, if Donatello and this defense still look a lot of, like do a lot of the same things and get hurt by a lot of the same things in terms of just giving up a lot of cushion and letting teams march down the field against them and giving up, I mean, the one thing they've been pretty good about is that they've held up fairly well in the red zone and they haven't given up a ton of points. If you just look at the scoring defense, they've been fine. But just giving up a lot of yards.

And if the Skylar Thompson Dolphins are right in this game at the end of it and possibly even winning, the bye week is not going to feel like a four and two bye week for the vikings on the offensive side will the vikings are facing a bad defense if they were facing a good defense then i would be much more apt to say like maybe skylar thompson can get them to 20 points and they can hold the vikings down but they are not good at all against the pass and they blitz a lot. And this was my question for you is Philadelphia blitz, the Vikings a lot and had a ton of success. But when you look at back at Kirk Cousins career, he has actually been quite good against the blitz over his career in terms of quarterback rating, a PFF grade, all those things. I that if miami blitzes a lot and leaves justin jefferson

one-on-one that this could just be another huge day for justin jefferson what i'm coming down to here is that i'm having a really difficult time finding a here's the big edge that the miami dolphins have against the vikings that big edge was going to be two is playing great and they got those two wide receivers and hey it could be a shootout just like it was between them and Baltimore, but their defense with Brian Flores gone, which was very good last year has just not been good against the past. They've had some injuries that have been problematic for them. So every team always has to praise the other team, but there's really nothing to suggest that this should be any different from what the Vikings did to Chicago.

No, the, the dolphins are 29th in defensive DVO. They're seventh in rushing DVO. So they've been fine in that area, but they are dead last in past defense DVO, which is like something the Vikings should absolutely be able to exploit. I mean, their top cornerback, Xavier Howard, I think it's unclear if he's going to play. He might be back. I think he's missed some time. Byron Jones is their other top cornerback. He's on the pup list, so he's not going to play.

It's not a team that really has a pass rush that you need to be scared about at all. It's like over the hill, Melvin Ingram, who used to be fine and pretty good on the Chargers or whatever it was. And then Jalen Phillips is a guy that I remember talking about a lot in the pre-draft conversation. I believe it was last year. And he's just not really taken off. I think he's shown some signs. But, yeah, not a team with much of a pass rush.

They've been playing some backup cornerbacks. The safeties aren't very good. Linebackers aren't very good linebackers aren't like it's just kind of a bad defense and uh kirk cousins and kevin o'connell kind of talked this week about how they play a ton of cover zero uh which is just man-to-man and they're just going to blitz you and then leave guys one-on-one and i don't know if they'll do that against the vikings at the same rate because not every team has a Justin Jefferson and you don't want to leave anybody one-on-one against Justin Jefferson even if it's Zabian Howard if he plays

so that'll be interesting but you're absolutely right that Kirk Cousins that Eagles game was kind of an aberration for him because he typically does well against the Blitz because Kirk Cousins is a smart quarterback and he is able to process things. And if he feels the pressure, he's usually going to be able to find kind of that hot read and somebody should be open because if you're bringing a lot of people in pressure, then you're not using a lot of people in coverage. And that's just kind of the basic way that defensive football works. And I think the Vikings are in a position with Kirk Cousins with an offensive

line that is really playing well, kind of with, with everyone with the exception of Ed Ingram, the offensive line's playing really well. They have some running backs in Cook and Madison and C.J. Hamm, if he's out there, who can pick up blitzers and pass protection. The tight ends, especially Johnny Munt, can block. So I think they're in a position to have a lot of success against this Dolphins defense, which then puts a lot more pressure on Skylar Thompson if the Vikings are kind of able to get a lot of success against this Dolphins defense, which then puts a lot more pressure on Skylar Thompson if the Vikings are kind of able to get a lead. And that's what happened last week against the Jets

is the Jets kind of got a lead, and then Skylar Thompson was trying to lead them back. And that's just a really hard thing to do for most quarterbacks and especially a seventh-round rookie. It just feels like after the Lions game that they moved the ball extremely well against the Saints but then didn't finish drives. But normally you're going to, right?

Like, I don't, like, I don't know if you'll hear sometimes, oh, they're a bad red zone team. It's like, well, you know, I mean, it's small sample sizes. I don't know that there's something a team is doing or that the Vikings did in that Saints game that you'd say, well, week after week, they're just going to blow it in the red zone. Like, and then they came right back against Chicago and scored in the red zone, which I assumed that that would kind of regress and go back to what it normally is,

where they've been a good red zone team really since Kirk Cousins has been here. And since that, it has felt like they have just been clicking on offense in a way that maybe they weren't against Detroit, weren't against Philadelphia, and that they've kind of gotten through some of the rocky times. Now it's up to them to not make that statement look silly, right? Because after last week, even as cold as they went in the second half for a big part of that, it still looked to me like everything was getting on the same page much more. And then they have a 17 play drive to go take the lead at the end of that game. And it's like, that's what should be happening.

You don't expect the team every single drive to succeed. Like the punter is still going to exist, but the way they clicked in the first half to get ahead in that game. And then the way that they finished it off, like that's one of those turn the corner moments or you want to look at it that way. And now you play three straight teams who are in the bottom eight of defensive EPA. Like this is somebody called it Kirk Tober and like, maybe it extends into November a little, but this is a classic sort of situation where they get it all laid out for them. Now it's up to them to take advantage, which before we get to our little game to wrap up, I think the bottom line is they really just can't lose this one.

Like it just, this feels like if you lose this one, it will be a huge gut punch for you. It will kind of just be one of those where maybe something goes wrong or whatever else, but this is one that you could feel like you regret down the road because it was Skylar Thompson, because that team was in disarray. They were facing criticism left and right. They've got investigations going on and how they handled their quarterback's concussion. That's got to be a big distraction for the entire organization. I think even Mike McDaniel might've lost some trust within his team

because of that, because you cannot tell me that there weren't a lot of players going, you're putting him back in the game on Thursday night, and then to do that and then take no responsibility for it. Those are the things that start a team to kind of crumble a little from the inside. And then I saw this week, my favorite thing, they're removing the pool table. The ping pong table, right?

The ping pong table. I'm sorry. They're removing the ping pong table. You know, the problem was too much ping pong. That was, was that was that's when you know a team is panicking when they're telling people like oh yeah we're getting it together we're getting rid of that ping pong table like what no that can't be that was like how zimmer didn't want the tv on you know what the tv's been on this year and they're four and one like those things don't matter yeah what matters is playing the game and playing well on

both sides of the ball and not uh having a ping pong table in the locker room you're you're i i really enjoyed that when you pointed that out on twitter like this is just a telltale sign of a team that is sort of kind of starting to fall apart and the vikings need to take advantage of that i i've touched on it earlier but like it feels weird to say about a four and one team but yeah they really need to win this game because like it's Skylar Thompson. It's a, it's a seventh round rookie quarterback making his first career start. And if you win this, even if it's not a blowout and you go to five and one,

like you feel good about yourself and you have the bi-week to kind of continue to work on these things and to get healthy and not that they're injured right now, but just to like, kind of take some time and get some rest because it's been kind of a hectic schedule with going to Philly on Monday night and then going to London especially and all that's kind of been disjointed in a number of ways so the bye week is coming at a good time in that sense but yeah man if you go into the bye week coming off a loss to Skylar Thompson the conversation is just going to be entirely different so I think they need to win this game. I think they will win this game, which we've been

predicting for three weeks in a row now, and they've found ways to make it happen. So we'll see if they can do it again this week against an exploitable defense and Skylar Thompson. And just, I don't know, like this is a weird demand to make of them, but like the whole deal with running it all back was not to be so, so it was to be a really, truly competitive team and a really, truly competitive team can't be losing to QB three, no matter how hard it is to go play in the warm air in Miami. It is a tough place to play, but you can't lose this game. So since they are playing in Miami, a quick game for you, Will.

I have a list of all of the English language films that are either shot or take place in Miami. So I am going to give you some hints and you have to guess which of, which of these are shot, uh, not which ones, but they're all shot in Miami, but like what the movie is. Maybe I should have given you a list of movies in general and asked which ones were shot there, but we're doing it this way. Cause there's no turning back. Uh, okay. I'm just going to scroll over the description and read some of it to you in the Wikipedia page. This movie is about a detective tasked with finding an abducted dolphin mascot

of the Miami Dolphins. What movie is that? Oh my God. This is going to be tough for me. I'm a movie guy. I like movies, I know. But I get the feeling that a lot of these are going to be classics classics like from before i was alive which isn't necessarily my uh my wheelhouse in the movie

this one is but it's really it's pretty notable like and and the thing is you'll you're gonna tell me the titles and i'm gonna be like oh yeah i've obviously heard of that and maybe even seen it but i i don't i don't think I've seen a movie where that involves a Miami dolphins mascot. I think I would remember that. Okay. This, this was Ace Ventura, pet detective. Okay. I see. I've heard of that, but I definitely have not seen it. Yes. It did take place in the nineties, but it's also considered a comedy classic. Okay. This is a football movie directed by Oliver Stone, depicting a fictional professional football team featuring an ensemble cast

with Al Pacino, Dennis Quaid, Jamie Foxx, LL Cool J. And it is, I'll just include that a classic phrase when it comes to football is the name of this film. Oh man. When two, when two teams match up and anything can happen, people say,

Oh, any given Sunday. Ah, yes, there you go. Good job. That you, you did kind of throw me an alley-oop there.

I appreciate it. I was trying to think of football movies. I was going to say like, remember the Titans or something, but that wasn't sounding right. So, uh, yeah, no, it wasn't,'t that supposed to be like alabama or mississippi or something um okay this all three of this trilogy uh were shot and take place in miami uh it is an action comedy with will sm and Martin Lawrence. They are buddy cops. Also, P. Diddy.

Think P. Diddy with this? Yeah. I was going to say, when you said Will Smith, I was going to say Men in Black, but that's not it, because that's John Travolta. No, I mean, Men in Black is definitely Will Smith, but I don't think it's in miami i think it's in the future or something um i yeah you're right will smith martin i i know this

this i know of this trilogy i just can't it's not coming to me right now you got a hint this is this is bad boys bad boys yeah bad boys bad boys too bad boys for life and you cannot make an excuse of your age because bad boys for life came out in 2020 okay you're right i do remember that being like a little reboot situation okay i'm gonna i'm trying to find ones that are a little more recent to help you out we'll do one or two more here um okay all right let's see here we go so uh this one is a 2013 superhero film featuring a character that is uh let's see i mean how can i how can i not like give this away who wears a suit flies around it's uh uh downing jr robert downing jr robert downey jr downey i'm not a film guy either is it like it's like a is a superhero movie yes okay it's not iron man this is so bad

yes iron man iron man okay okay okay i was i was overthinking that that's set in miami okay interesting uh not exactly set but shot in miami this is stretching it a little bit and set are two different things okay all right we'll make this easy to end this painful session um the football talk before this was great though so. So this always goes sideways. This is the name of the city and a clamp. Miami Vice? Yes, yes. Nice.

Well done. Nice. Well done. All right, let's end on that high note. Yeah, for sure. Okay, well, most of this was great, Will. I think the listeners enjoy the games at the end, even if I'm not good at some or most of them. I totally agree. There's a lot more movies on there that I was planning to go through, but, um, here we are. So anyway, well, good stuff as always.

And we will, are you predicting the Vikings to win this game? Oh yeah, no, for sure. I guess I thought that was like really strongly implied when i said like you better yeah but yes no i am i guess if we want to give a score i think it should be like um 24 to 13 yeah i think that's reasonable i think it'll probably end up being like 27 21 or something because it always ends up in that range but i I, I am predicting a Vikings win as well. Okay. And we will be, uh, well, we won't be doing a pre, uh, pre whatever game, uh, next week, but maybe we can get together for a, uh,

what's going on at the bi-week thing, or maybe not, depending on what you're doing. I don't know. So we'll see. And that is what listeners will have to look forward to. Thanks, Will. Thank you.