Purple Insider - a Minnesota Vikings and NFL podcast - The Vikings beat the Texans. That's good, right? Ft. ESPN's Courtney Cronin

Episode Date: October 4, 2020

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And let me ask you the key question. Last week I started out by saying, hey, there's going to be a lot of these roller coaster games and you should be hoping that the offense is exciting because then these games will be kind of fun. That's what came to fruition today. But they come away with a win. Is that good? Is that good, Courtney? What do you think?

Well, it depends what your definition of good is. If your definition of good is team got a win, they got a dub, they got a one in the win column as opposed to an O in four, then sure. But if you're looking at this with a, with the other side of your brain and saying, well, who do they do it against the Texans? Oh my God. The Texans are terrible. Like, like how does Bill O'Brien, I mean, did he do something? Does he have pictures of somebody?

How's that guy have a job first off, but like have the power of literally everything. Like I think it shows you like the way that I look at the situation. It's not because you're so uber talented that you get to be the head coach, GM and play caller. That shows me that you are a freaking egomaniac and somebody who has no ability to delegate whatsoever, either because you have a terrible support staff around you, which I do not believe to be the case, or you're just a terrible leader and a power-hungry psychopath, which I think the latter. I'll take that because the staff, anybody who works for the Houston Texans does not deserve to be in this situation right now,

where they're 0-4 and their head coach is literally driving the bus to hell. So, yeah, you can look at it that way and be like like who'd we really beat if you're a Vikings fan or you can say yeah a win feels good because they had all this COVID nonsense this week that wasn't even their fault and they still showed resiliency they had every excuse to kind of just like lay lay down and die to be honest after the week that they had missing a practice um all of the the scare that they even had this morning as mike zimmer said there was a poc that came back i think a false positive for one of their starters and three that came back in conclusives they were stressed about that but they they they showed that they have a mental makeup

even though they are young and they're missing a lot of players on defense injuries and what have you that they can bounce back but i think most people, at least in my Twitter mentions at the moment, are like, why did they have to win? That game is going to put us out of contention for Trevor Lawrence. And I don't think that they have been in contention for Trevor Lawrence to begin with. That's just been my thought, that it's fail for Fields, if anything. But this game, this win, puts you further out of contention for

that because if we're being realistic here and I know it is hard to come by wins in the NFL but this is probably a 5-11 team unless something happens unless they have some breaks go their way so it's like okay all of this for what down the line you know what I mean like it's a win that looks you know a win is a win whatever but does it really help you long term i thought it was yield for fields i i didn't really yield yield why yeah yield for fields because it rhymes and right i mean like yield like stop yeah exactly like stop playing hard try, yield for fields. Just lay down and let everybody go by. I have not heard that one.

I've only heard failed for fields because I like alliteration. Okay, and don't play for Trey is the other one, or at least that's the one that I've been using. The dude from North Dakota State, he has his own thing. He does, yeah. People are really high on him. Daniel Jeremiah compared him to Andrew Luck, and then after he didn't play well in his only thing? He does, yeah. People are really high on him. Daniel Jeremiah compared him to Andrew Luck, and then after he didn't play well in his only football game this year,

then he changed that to comparing him to Dak Prescott. So he seems to think Trey Lance is going to be a superstar. I don't know. People thought that about Sam Darnold too. Is it honestly just because Carson Wentz went there one time? I don't know. It's odd. I mean, I guess he just has all these tools.

Like he's big and he's really fast and he's got a super strong arm and all those things. I am also skeptical when someone went there. But, you know, I don't know. We've seen quarterbacks go to strange colleges and turn out to be pretty good. So that ends up being on hold, though, that conversation for at least today. And if you want to read about it, I interviewed some fans about tweeting Trevor Lawrence memes at purpleinsider.com. So if you want to read what they had to say, it was a pretty fun

article to write. But just real quick on the Texans, because they're not our problem anymore after this. But I agree with you, my gosh. I mean, you run the ball 26 times for 96 yards in a game that you're losing the entire time. I mean, that's not something you see very often is teams continuing to try to establish the run on second and long in the fourth quarter when you have to drive down the field. And I don't know if Bill O'Brien has ever tried a different kind of run play, but handing off to wash David Johnson up the middle over and over and over again, it's a stupendously bad plan. And I think it says a lot about Deshaun Watson that he didn't play well. His coach is garbage. And yet he still found a way to be inches within winning the game. And I

think that says a lot about Deshaun Watson. But put them aside. They don't matter. Their team's a train wreck. Clearly, the answer was there today that I posed earlier in the week, which was, would you switch places because they have Watson and you don't? I don't think so if Bill O'Brien has to come along with it. To me, the story of this game is, looking forward, this team is going to score points against other teams they play against Seattle's got a bad defense Atlanta has a bad defense Detroit has a bad defense like there are going to be a lot of those games and even though they're going to come out with wins and

some people won't be too happy with that I think it also makes things interesting to watch on a Sunday to Sunday basis even if I am not declaring that they are back in the playoff race at 1-3? Yeah, I mean, it's exciting. But it's going to be these games, probably more times than not, that come down to the two-minute warning in the second half, that come down to who has the ball last. And I know that is literally the most cliche thing ever, but I think you're going to be,

I wouldn't necessarily call them shootouts either because today wasn't a shootout. It was just kind of a gut check time there. Can the defense hold? And it ended up being that Will Fuller had his knee down on the, on the pass that, you know, he was, he was matched up with Holton Hill, Hilton, Holton Hill. I noticed that I wrote Hilton Holton earlier. Shout out Everson Griffin for that one.

Everson Griffin called him that once, yeah. And it's now stuck in my brain. You might not have to know his name for much longer after the pass interference that he committed in a key situation there. And I know that some people will say, well, hey, he helped force that incomplete pass essentially with Will Fuller. Did he? Or was Will Fuller just in incomplete pass essentially with Will Filler. Did he? Or was Will Filler just in a bad position in the back in the corner of the end zone and just couldn't bring it in and his knee was down the whole thing?

This defense is not very good. And did they show marginal improvement today? Sure. Mike Zimmer said that that was the best first half that they played in. That's great and everything, but realize who you're doing this against. It took a really bad offense for the Vikings going against to get some confidence and to look good on defense, which doesn't say anything about your defense. But we know that the offense has the ability with Justin Jefferson

and Adam Thielen and Dalvin Cook to be able to put up yards and put up points. Kirk Cousins looked good today. But they're going to have to do that at a rate where you're basically outscoring teams every single week if you want to win those games. We just know that's not going to be likely. And even what Justin Jefferson said at the end of the game, I asked him, okay, I said, Kirk wants to play better in the final 10 minutes of the game.

What is that going to entail? And he's like, it's going to entail us having the ball in our hand last and we want to be the ones you know to kind of control the game and I think that that speaks to just how how much this offense probably had gut check time of here we go again looking at themselves in the fourth quarter that shoot if if the defense would have allowed a score there let's say they allowed score the game's tied and Ibiza would have gone for two offense, let's say they allowed a score, the game's tied, and Ibizé would have gone for two. Offense would have had minute and under a minute 30, something like that, to go down the field and score

or to get in field goal range. Yes, it would have gone to overtime, what have you. But to be put in those situations week in and week out, that is a lot of stress on your offense to ask them to come through like that. So I think that they want to try to essentially win games earlier than the final two minutes of the fourth quarter, things like that. And is that going to be possible every week? I don't know.

But they're certainly going to be put in that situation more times than not. I think that the last two weeks are a microcosm of what we're going to see the rest of the season, that when they play bad teams, they're going to have a chance to put up a ton of points and win games. But the defense is going to have a chance to put up a ton of points and win games, but the defense is going to keep the other team in the game. I'm just really thinking about this Atlanta game on October 18th at U.S. Bank Stadium, where Atlanta has shown to have a pretty good offense, but their defense is a joke. And the same thing goes for Dallas.

All of a sudden, Dallas is horrible, and they're 1-3, and they're getting lit up. And this is where the tanking thing was never going to happen, was this team was probably not going to give up and they had too much talent on offense to just roll over. But at the same time, other teams that have good offenses are probably going to put up a lot of points against them. And whether it's a good team or bad team that you're playing probably determines how the end of those games go. This is a horrendous Houston Texans team, so you win. You hang on to win. It's a good Tennessee Titans team, so they hang on to win. And I think that's what we're going to be dealing with for the

rest of the season. I guess where I want to figure out the right place to be is, are you looking at this and saying, well well it's a little bit of a conundrum because if Justin Jefferson is great that means a lot of good things for your future and after today following up 175 yards with another 100 yard performance huge catches on third down especially the back shoulder catch was marvelous but he also lost a dude like he's out there doing great things that really project toward a star-wide receiver. The problem with that is that you won't be in, you know, whatever, don't play for Trey or fail for Fields or whatever.

You will not be in that conversation. Oh, yeah, you're right. Jefferson is this good. I've said this all along. This team is too talented to suck. Like sucking is like, you know, just being at the absolute worst, Giants level, Jets level, never able to get above a three or four win season.

I think they're a 5-11 team, 6-10, 7-9, absolute, absolute ceiling of this team, which I still don't think is going to happen. But they're too talented across the board on offense. You could put the worst offensive line out there, like even worse. You could have Drew Samia start every position for the Minnesota Vikings offensive line, and they still would probably be a 5-11 team just because I think that Kirk, you know, made some massive throws today.

And to show that he's confident that he can make contested throws and that his guys are going to come down with those balls, and he just hasn't. It's not been something that he's necessarily had that type of look the last, you know, three games and certainly even last year. But again, like who did they go against is a team that was not very good defensively, even though they got home there in the first part of the game with a three man rush and sacked cousins that looked kind of pathetic. But like,

you have two talented receivers on the outside. You have a very, very, very good, if not the best running back in the NFL right now, who is just torching dudes when you force them to the outside and, you know, gaining all these yards after contact. Like, Dalvin Cook's playing his best football. You have all these pieces, and it's like, you can't have all these great pieces and expect to stink. You just can't. So I think they're kind of in that place of purgatory, which is like, all right, you're probably going to be five and 11, six and 10, but that's not going to get you a top five draft pick. Probably get you beyond that, which you end up being in this great position

to probably draft another offensive lineman if you want. Like, would have been a great situation to be in two years ago when you could have gotten Quentin Nelson. But, like, do you really want to do that? Do you want to get another corner? Do you want to get a defensive lineman? Like, ugh, that's just – I can already tell you how bad it's going to be during draft night in round one if the Vikings are picking, like, seventh and they end up getting somebody that's not named Justin Fields

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lineman too who's expected to go in the top three and I think that everybody would sign up for that too yes uh so I was thinking about this from a Kirk Cousins perspective of how many more times this year could he have a game like this so he goes 16 for 22 127 quarterback rating one touchdown no picks and came up big on third downs made a a lot of good plays. And when he wasn't pressured, he certainly found receivers. Today was easily Gary Kubiak's best day as a play caller. He threw in more motion.

He threw in a reverse. He had guys running wide open. At one point, you're right. At one point, Adam Thielen is so wide open that the TV camera cannot find a Texans defender, which is baffling, but good job on the scheme, I guess. And so you have Justin Jefferson emerging, you have Dalvin Cook, but it looks to me like just look at the schedule going forward.

You could have this type of performance from Cousins a number of times going forward. If you have it happen seven more times and you win five of those games because he plays really, really well, then I don't think that the Vikings go into the offseason saying, oh, well, we've got to replace Kirk Cousins. I think that they're going to look at games like this and weigh them heavier than they will the bad games like Indianapolis or the bad games to come against good defenses. All along, I think that they felt like this guy is their quarterback. And as much as you can hope and try to will yourself to believe that they were trying to get to the bottom and

tank and get another quarterback, it's games like this that they look at and say, hey, that's what he can do. And you can disagree with that, but I think that that is the reality of how they view their quarterback situation and how we should look at it going forward as he does this I'm sure a number of other times the guy has had seasons just like this before in the past they always come out with eight wins seven wins and I don't see why this one's going to be that different well it's just like you're expecting mediocrity and you're hoping that there will be some things that break your way and he's able to get over that nine and seven type hump and that he could be an 11 and five quarterback or even god

forbid a 12 and four quarterback but you signed up for this knowing who he was and knowing that you probably weren't going to be like it's worst case scenario if you're thinking how do we get rid of Kirk Cousins you know what I mean like if they were truly thinking that they wouldn't have signed into the extension because it's going to be more expensive to do it this way if they were to, you know, play out the season and it goes terrible. And maybe this is the way that it happens wasting all that money anyways. Like, I don't think that they ever went into that thinking that that was going to be what they wanted to do. That's like the worst, that's the fail safe for you. Like, that's not ever going to be their approach. But I just don't know, like, he's the most hot and cold quarterback in the NFL.

Like, he looks good this week. But let's take that with a grain of salt. Like, who do they play? They played a team that's not very good, a team that, like, honestly, kind of looked like they gave up on Bill O'Brien and weren't even trying half the time. So, I mean, I don't, I just, I think people are smart enough to realize who the Houston Texans are and what this will look like against a good defense. That, you know, these are games, yes, they had a scare there in the fourth quarter that the defense that the Vikings defense was going to have some

problems once again uh and it was going to be up to the offense to win the game fortunately for the offense's sake it didn't happen that way but that's not to say that that won't be the case next week or against good teams and honestly you brought up Atlanta I wanted to say something is Atlanta not the Minnesota Vikings like a version of them because their defense gives away games their offense can put up a ton of points in yards it looks good um they win in funnier fashion but yeah yeah I mean like you know stupid stuff like you know at least there isn't like stupid stuff here like not jumping on the onside kick what was it two weeks ago anyways like I just I feel like you're you're just kind of stuck in this purgatory um where you can't you can't be like the worst of the worst to get to you know to

get your quarterback and all that and I think that that is frustrating to some Vikings fans who at least believe that they know this Kirk Cousins as he is right now, and that he won't ever be able to rise above who he is right now, that he can put up good numbers against a bad team, but when it really counts, he won't be able to do the same. Okay, so let me ask you one more big picture question, because we sort of focused on the big picture of this win, which is there are probably going to be more games like it on the way

against similarly bad teams, but there's not enough of those games to say, oh, yeah, this is a playoff team now after they started 0-3. But let me throw this out to you in just a scenario, and then I got things to talk about specifically from the game. But let's say that they did get back in the hunt. What can they do from today that translates and projects forward that could get them back in the hunt? Hmm.

Well, I think they found their blueprint offensively. Yeah, I agree. I think that's fair. I think it's, you know, you are a run-first team first team. So run the ball first, establish, set the tone with Alvin Cook, take your shots with Adam Thielen, with, with Justin Jefferson, strike a little bit here and there with Kyle Rudolph. Like you have a vast array of options on offense. And I think that that's the blueprint that can probably carry forward the

most to be able to win games or at least stay close in games, things like that. But, you know, outside of that, I don't really know. Like, I mean, there's a negative takeaway that I could take is that the defense, like, you didn't play anybody. Like, you had marginal improvement, but it wasn't, I mean, that's, don't hang your hat on this Texans game and think it's that great. It's just not. But outside wasn't, I mean, that's, don't hang your hat on this Texans game and think it's that great. It's just not. But outside of that, I just, I'm not really sure, like, you know, what's going to carry over. I mean, I think the blueprint is the biggest one. I think it's entirely Justin Jefferson. Like, the thing that goes forward is throw it to Justin

Jefferson all the time, and you'll probably win a lot of games. I mean, we saw Stephon Diggs dominate last year against, albeit, an easier schedule, though now the schedule doesn't look quite as tough when Atlanta is horrendous, and Jacksonville definitely looks like a tank for Trevor's team after losing to the Bengals, and you have Dallas doesn't look so hard either. The Saints kind of looked like themselves,

but that was against the Detroit Lions. So there's that, but the Lions look horrible and you might be able to beat them once or twice. So I think that if Jefferson is playing the role of Stephon Diggs and even Delvin Cook said it after the game, if Jefferson does that, all of a sudden Adam Thielen looks better again and there you have it. And I think really is it comes down to yeah you're going to probably have to put up 500 yards of offense every week and rely a lot on Delvin Cook but you can do it with the number of weapons that you have so I agree with you because I don't think that we're seeing a vast change in terms of this defense especially since it does not appear that we're

going to see Daniil Hunter anytime soon yeah let me ask you about this game, though. The Harrison Smith ejection is probably the most controversial thing that happened in this game. And at first, I was like, wow, that is really surprising that they're going to eject him after that. But after Mike Pereira explained it on the broadcast, I got a few tweets of people that were upset about it. I understand what you're saying, that he didn't look like he meant to do it. But in this particular instance,

that doesn't matter. It doesn't matter if you meant to do it. It's like, you know, hitting someone with your car, like it was an accident. But still, if you hurt him, you're going to be responsible for it. So I thought that the referees made a fine decision there. I don't think that that's like Mike Zimmer said, I don't think that that's, like Mike Zimmer said, I don't think that suddenly Harrison Smith is a dirty or out-of-control player. It maybe wasn't his fault, but that is the textbook. That's the play they show that says you eject this guy when this happens. So I'm fine with that.

I don't know what else he could have done differently because Aikens went low too you know what I mean after he caught that ball he went low so it's like kind of like unless you can contort your body to go to to have your head go above his I don't even know how that would work um if you're Harrison Smith there was nothing he could have done but as Mike Zimmer said he's like you know quarterbacks don't get penalized for throwing over the middle of the field and those you know when a receiver's making that play blind essentially um and they don't see Harrison Smith like what is that what the offense doesn't get penalized for anything like that I guess you could say the penalty is the guy gets knocked out of the game with with a concussion

and that's a serious thing but I don't know what more Harrison Smith could have done I don't fault him for it it's not egregious at all. It was certainly a judgment call because that's not an automatic ejection. Like, that was something that the refs deliberated over, and they determined that, obviously, the helmet to helmet, he led with the crown of his head, the whole thing, textbook, like you said. Like, I know Mike Zimmer was hot in the moment about it, but I'm sure he'll look back at

it and be like yeah it sucks but like that's that's what it was but you know that was a turning point for for the defense for sure um and I think what this truly highlights um you know it's just like they did enough today to get by um because they were allowing just over 31 points a game through the first three games. And they still struggled. We're still seeing some of the big, big, big issues that they had with explosive plays. And then they're up at nine right now of the plays. At least if you – what do you deem an explosive?

For me, our definition is 30-plus yards or more. They've got nine of those, including the Will Fuller one today, which is 43 yards. But safety depth has been an issue for this team for months. Like dating back to training camp, dating before that, and they haven't solved it. And now it's really coming up to bite them, which is a scary spot to be in. When you only had four corners active today,

Cam Dantzler gets hurt early in the game. George Iloka, who was a safety, was practicing at nickel all week. Mike Zimmer has to ask him on the sideline, do you know how to play safety? Like, you know, all these things, it's kind of like not good. And I guess it's not for lack of trying. They did bring safeties in to work out. They had a couple, Stephen Parker was somebody they signed or they claimed from Miami during training camp none of it panned out but does this now become the next position group that gets the same sort of treatment as like the offensive line like you know not addressing it enough fans are never going to be satisfied with how they address it like I don't know because Harrison Smith is not going to be able to play

forever Anthony Harris might not be on this team next year just because of the contract situation and long-term deal and what their cap space is. So I'm curious, like, going forward, what does this position look like beyond this group? Because they certainly have depth issues, and you don't know. Is Harrison Smith going to be suspended for next week's game? I don't think it's – I don't – I wouldn't think so, but, you know. Yeah, the fact that he doesn't have history, I would think he doesn't. I think he's only ejected, like, one other game of his career.

I don't remember that. Was he ejected one other time? I think it was, like, when he was, like, really young. Might have been his rookie season back in 12. Yeah, I don't think that that'll be a thing that happens. It's not like Anderson Dayhoe, who did have the history, and he got suspended back in 2017 for his hit on Mike Wallace. I don't think that's the same. This is a harder one to figure out in terms of the cornerbacks and evaluate them right after watching the game without watching it back

on the All-22, because Jeff Gladney definitely got roasted by Will Fuller. And I don't know if George Iloka was supposed to be over the top. Even when Holton Hill, it appears, makes a mistake because he stops. But sometimes the zone asks you to do that. And then there's supposed to be a safety over the top. But maybe he was supposed to carry, and we don't really know. And George Iloka did take the right guy. It's hard to say.

I mean, if they had lost, everyone would have been pinning the loss on Iloka. But he just got here a couple of weeks ago. He just got here. And it's like he knows that – I hate when everybody's like, oh, he knows the defense, blah, blah, blah. He played with Zimmer in Cincinnati. Yeah, but he was out of football for a couple months there and he hadn't signed with anybody.

And, like, you're expecting him, you know, I just, I don't like that excuse. Like, yes, you have institutional knowledge by and large, but if you never play and then all of a sudden you're thrust into it, that's tough. Like, right. And you didn't practice it. Right. No, not at all. And so that's, that's, that's really hard. Like, I know I'm going to bounce back and forth here between stuff, but Delvin cooks running today was outrageous. I mean, he didn't get the greatest blocking.

His yards after contact have to be through the roof. I saw somebody from ESPN tweet out, I forget who it was now, but tweet out the eight men in the box, like a live look at the eight men in the box, and Houston was just putting everybody up at the line of scrimmage. They couldn't stop Delvin Cook anyway, and he has another huge game after a career-high rushing, 130 yards, 27 carries, and I thought it was funny that the broadcast was ripping on him for not being in later in the game for two plays. Like, give the man a break. He's been carrying the entire team, and Madison's good, okay? Take a deep breath there. But Delvin Cook is killing it on a team that's 1-3. So as we're always assessing whether it was a smart idea to sign Delvin Cook

to a contract extension after these last two games, do you say yes because he does stuff like this or not really because they're still 1-3 even though he's been marvelous? That's a tough one. like this or not really because they're still one in three, even though he's been marvelous. That's a tough one. Yeah, because last week he was great too and they still lost. And I think yes, I'll say yes for a number of reasons, because if you don't have him, do you have a win today? Because are you getting that same production with Alexander Madison?

Maybe. But, like, Cook is part of the blueprint. Like, he's the biggest part, in my opinion. You start things with him to establish what you're going to do. Because, I mean, it's not like some football outsiders type game plan where you don't need the run to set up play action. Like, that is such nonsense. You need the run, not every play,

but you need to be able to have the threat of run to set up play action, which Kirk Cousins is really good at. You know what happened today? A lot more play action. He went 9 of 11 for 180 yards and a touchdown on play action passes on Sunday. It's more completions on play action he's had in his first three games combined because he was 8 of 16. What helped with that? Dalvin Cook. So yes, I'll say yes. I think that that's a fair assessment of it. Somebody's going to say, well, you could have gotten the same production out of Alexander Madison. Well,

I don't know that to be the case, neither do you, neither does anybody else, because we've seen Madison in such limited use. But I do think that they they're not going to be able – they need to do so much offensively to be able to carry the weight of this team. And this team is heavy.

This defense and the baggage the defense has this year is a lot to carry. So they have to overcome it in so many ways. And it's just kind of like you've got to just throw as much as you can at the wall to stick. And Dalvin's very much a part of that, I think. He's a huge part of that. I don't think they're in last week's game or that they win this week's game at all without Dalvin Cook, and he has been that valuable to them over his career

that when he's great, they win. And that's not just the racking up yards at the end of the game. He has important yards. He has huge plays. They threw a swing screen to him that went down as a run, but it was really more of a pass. And he gets 11 yards on one of those plays that usually get blown up by linebackers. There were several times where he's caught in the backfield.

He gets four yards. And going into the end zone, he just disrespectfully pushes the Texans corner, like, get out of here. Don't even try to tackle me. You're going to have a problem with that. It's not ever about whether Delvin Cook is good because he is extremely extremely good one of the most three or four talented players the conversation was always i mean in part how much is that going to matter this year because they might end up with six wins and then you say well we wasted a great delvin

cook season for six wins yeah and then it's projecting forward it's not about this year in his prime it's about where's it going to be going forward and I don't know about you but when you saw him down on the field for even five seconds I know like oh is this here we go again with yes and and the thing is they are better on the field with him than without him so like the for the first part of his career so from the time he was drafted in 17 they're 12 and 3 when that he has at least 100 yards from scrimmage and I think they're 6 9 and 1 when he has less than that so that's over the course of three seasons that's sample size that's showing you yes they are worse when they don't have him on the field and that's why he is such

a big part of this but I understand what you're saying it's kind of like well if he has such a great year they don't do anything what's the point of it because you put all these touches on his body and it's like mileage it's going to be there next year when they are supposed to be really good um or at least the expectations will be higher assuming the cornerbacks come along at the pace that you would expect but I just don't see any other way around it's not like you can be like yeah go sit out for a year and come back like we'll get you you know we'll get you in 2021 that's just not possible so I think that they're in a good place with him right now but the injuries

man oh gosh and for a second when I saw him like kind of kneeling down there in the end of the game and I was like you know are you gonna rule him out like what's what's the deal here and it's just like I think every time every time something like that happens because remember he got banged up under four minutes to go in the game last week I thought it was an ankle or a hamstring and he ended up being kind of clearly but it's just like oh gosh like I just think everybody's gonna collectively hold their breath until they see that he's okay and can finish out a game. And I mean, he was terrific today. Another, another great day for him. And I think honestly so much of that is Kubes and where he designed those

runs. I mean, it wasn't just Dalvin going up the gut, even though I'm sure he would have been just fine doing that, but it's forcing things to the perimeter, making all these edge plays, like really taking advantage of how bad Houston is at setting an edge and, you know, exploiting that part of their game plan. And Dalvin, really, that's where he shined the most. I mean, he can cut outside, and once you give him a crease, like, that's going to be a problem too.

Yeah, this was exactly the type of win that Gary Kubiak wants, where Dalvin Cook goes for over 100, Kirk Cousins only has to throw 22 passes, but he gets a lot of explosive plays out of those passes, and because he's only dropping back 25 total times in the game, you don't let J.J. Watt ruin your game plan, as in some ways Jadavia and Clowney did the week before. Another player that I wanted to ask you about is Yannick Ngakwe, and maybe this is me focusing a little too much on one small thing that I spotted, but Ngakwe gets another sack today. It was kind of one of those, like, Deshaun is stepping up in the pocket, and it's

maybe a one-yard loss type of sack, but still, three sacks in the last three. In the position of it, too, like where they were at that point in the game, I think was critical. Yeah, right, so a good sack. I mean, he gets credit for that, at that point in the game, I think was critical. Yeah, right. So a good sack. I mean, he gets credit for that. But there's another play where I think it's Watson running. And at first, Yannick Ngakwe sort of is like, I'm going to get him. And then as soon as he doesn't, he's just kind of like, no, I got nothing left on this play. And just sort of just shuts it down for the play.

And I thought, this is kind of Yannick Ngakwe. Like he will ramp it up at some times and then other times just cool it right back down and at the goal line I don't know whether to give him any credit for jumping toward Deshaun Watson and making pitch the ball because I think if the pitch is executed they score a touchdown there but instead they traded John Drake Hopkins for this guy who is awful in David Johnson and so he can't even catch the ball or run or do anything. Great trade, Bill O'Brien. But, you know, whatever.

Ngakwe does the right thing. He got Watson to get the ball out of his hands quickly so they could rally and potentially tackle him at the goal line. One-on-one with Iloka, though, had a pretty good chance to score still. Aside from that, I think that we've really seen the whole version of Yannick Ngakwe, which is one or two times a game he's going to show up with something great, and a lot of other times in the game he's going to disappoint you. And I wonder if you think that his play so far,

if you were to project these first four weeks onto the rest of Yannick Ngakwe, if you want that as long-term? Well, I think they want it long-term because they're thinking pairing him with Daniil and what does that actually look like when they have two elite pass rushers on both sides. I don't know when Daniil's coming back. No idea. At this point, and I think, too too like just to kind of touch back on everything that came out the last few days of him flying to New York and gallivanting through Times Square

on his way to get a second opinion on the herniated disc in his neck um there's no point for him to come back I don't think not right right now, not before the bye. I think that slow play this as long as you can because they can get by without you because they're, you know, the defense – is it really going to change all that much with the defense when your safety depth is depleted, your cornerbacks are a bunch of, you know, 22-year-olds that are going to need some time to develop. You don't have Anthony Barr in the middle of your defense, and the interior of your defensive line is still not great.

Like, I mean, is this the right time for him to come back and risk even further injury? I don't know. So, but next year, let's say he chills the rest of this year. Like, this is like worst case scenario. I think that I would absolutely extend Yannick Ngakwe. I haven't heard anything about that happening yet or them even being in talks, but, you know, if you can have the same sort of one-two punch that you had with

Daniil Hunter and Everson Griffin and be able to have the type of rusher Daniil is on one side, and then you have the finesse, the finesse, flashy pass rusher in Yannick Ngakwe on the other side, who is good for, like you said, good for a sack a game, good for a forced fumble, strip sack, tackle for loss, some big splash play. And maybe he'll disappear a little bit. Probably won't play the run, but, I mean, they didn't have to today because the Texans are terrible at running the ball, too, which I thought was the only good thing that they did.

So bad. But, yeah, like, I mean, I'll be willing to go out on a limb here and say, yes, even with a small sample size, I would extend him, just because I feel like when they can actually do what they want to do defensively up front, it's worth it. The wait is finally over. Football is back. You might not be at a game this year, but you can still be in on the action at BetOnline.

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Take advantage of all the great sign-up bonuses. Don't forget to use the promo code BlueWire at BetOnline.ag. That's BlueWire, all one word, BetOnline, your online sportsbook experts. I think that they're probably going to do it to win the trade as always and they're going to overvalue what he brings. I am not saying he's bad by any means. I mean when he explodes at full speed and he gets a sack the way that he strip sacked Ryan Tannehill last week was terrific and he's gotten really high grades from pff the last couple of weeks on his pass rushing he might uh for today as well but i also look at a lot of situational rushers too as being able to do similar things guys who are sort of proven around the league and then when you do the

math with how much it's going to cost and so forth then that's where i get a little bit hesitant about that maybe they'll just franchise tag him and play him for one more year anyway. Yeah, they could do that too. If he's going to sign it and play on it. I mean, we don't know that for how he's going to look forward. I know this is the 2021 tunnel a little bit here, but I'm just sort of like, we're always going to be assessing through each part of the season how we feel about Ngakwe. And I think he's very good at being Yannick Ngakwe and doing the exact thing that he does but much more than that I'm not sure how much you get and if you have Hunter does he make someone else better too the math formula there is kind of interesting so I'm gonna I'm gonna keep watching

because he's been very good these last couple of games and or at least he's made very big plays and I want to see if that gets a little more consistent throughout the season. Before we wrap up, I want to ask you now about a couple of other teams and whether you think the Vikings are suddenly better than these teams or not, now that we have a sample size, okay? Now that we've seen Dallas lose, Washington is horrible, the Eagles are horrible, the Giants are horrible, are they better than every team in the NFC East or not? Better than Washington, better than the Eagles,

better than Giants. Can I still say that the jury's out on the Cowboys? I know they're 1-3, but they're kind of one of those teams, too. They look at them like, you're way too talented to suck. And what if you get Earl Thomas? Like, you know, how does that fix your defense?

That's been certainly a problem. Can we say that it's just running into a hard schedule early on? I don't know. Two losses were very close, too. They were very close against the Rams, very close against Seattle. Sure. And I don't know. I just – I'm not ready to say every team. were very close too. We were very close against the Rams, very close against Seattle. Sure. And I don't know. I just, I'm not ready to say every team, um, because the Vikings are still like, what have they proven to us? They beat a bad Texans team. Right. Can we really put them in

the argument? Are they worse than this? Worse, worse team? Like, no, not yet. Like, you know, on paper, I think that it's fair to put all of those teams in timeout in the same category to be like, you're all bad. Like, really. Like, even coming out of today, can you say that the Vikings are good? Like, good in certain areas, but I'm not going to say that they're a good team. You know what I'll say is I think their offense is going to be overall pretty good. I think at the end of the year, they're going to put up a lot of numbers,

especially in these shootout type of games, and that they can win with their offense and be explosive. That's not to say they have the best offense in the league. It's going to carry them to 9-7 or 10-6 or anything like that. But do I think they're better than Washington, whose quarterback is a joke, or New York, whose quarterback is a joke, or New York, whose quarterback is a joke, or Philadelphia, whose entire team is hurt, and their quarterback isn't all that good either.

I mean, I think Dallas is still better than the Vikings, but I'm counting them up, how many teams we say the Vikings are better than. I've got three in the NFC East. Fair? Three in the NFC East, yes. I'm not ready to say the Cowboys yet. I'm not ready to say that they're better than Atlanta yet, which we'll find out here in two weeks.

I think Seattle's a better team than them, even though, as you like to point out, Seattle has no defense as well. They really don't. But, you know, they're undefeated at the moment. So, I mean, you know, I just – this team is very one-sided at the moment. And I just – that's not the way that you can win games. Because even back in 2017, when you knew the defense was going to bail out the offense, it wasn't this one-sided.

Right. You know, like this feels like 80-20 a lot of games. And when it's so predictable that, like the offense the defense is going to have a scare they're late in the game offense your backs are going to be up against the wall like let's hope that either the defense the other offense screws up something like the pitch to David Johnson or Will Fuller not being in you know not catching the ball in pounds or whatever it was like let's hope it's something like that so the offense doesn't have to go back out onto the field and show they actually can win a game like it's kind of like avoidance at all costs um when it's like you have the best part of your offense like just keep that part don't actually make them get

tested so that's kind of what that's kind of where i like struggle with it's like when we see the offense really get tested really get tested what is that going to yield because i'm not so sure it's going to be a win every time, just even if you are putting up 500 yards. Right. When they play Chicago, when they play Green Bay again, we know kind of what that looks like. But let me ask you about some other teams here.

So you don't think they are decidedly better than Atlanta after today's win? No, I don't. Okay. How about Detroit? Detroit lost to the New Orleans Saints. And I saw the lead that they had, right, that they gave up. It's a 35-29 win for the Saints. Let me look really quick at the scoring.

Yeah, so I saw Detroit was up 14-0. I caught part of that. And then the Saints went boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom. And the Lions tried to do something there late in the game, which kind of sounded the Vikings a little bit, but then nothing. They're probably better than Detroit. They're probably better than Detroit. Okay, I'll agree. So that's four teams that they're better than in the NFC. Now, how about the two most interesting to ask about are Carolina and Arizona because Arizona lost to Carolina, and Carolina isn't all that good, though Teddy played really great against Arizona

and also had a touchdown run, which is just mind-blowing to see considering that you and I both covered the entire thing of his comeback and how he looked early on in that. But are they better than either Carolina or Arizona right now? I don't think they're better than Arizona. I think they're probably better. Like they should be decidedly better than Carolina. Because that one for me has always been a win when you've made me pick the schedule.

Which you will again. I know. I'm sure I will. Not today, but I will another day. I'm not doing it today. I'm too tired. Very soon. Very soon.

But I think they're better than Carolina. I mean, Carolina is going to be another top, that is a top three, top four draft positioning type team. Like, I've never felt the Vikings could be that, really. Like, I just don't. And, you know, without McCaffrey for however many more weeks and how long it's going to go on, it's like, what is that team? You know, like, yeah.

So this is something that I kind of want to track as we go along. It's like, how many teams do we think the Vikings are better than? We have five in the NFC alone after today's win. So again, yes, circling back to where we started, the tank thing probably not going to happen. So enjoy the ride because you know it's going to be a lot of wild games like this. But it will also be something to watch too, because if you think about playoffs and this is a I have

to mention this okay because the NFC is such dog you know what in a lot of areas especially the NFC so one team gets to make it from the NFC East because that rule is an abomination and then you have five teams that the Vikings are better than at this moment. So you start having the wheels spin a little, and all of a sudden you're in the bubble, like are on the bubble. You shouldn't say in a bubble anymore. You are an on the bubble team at one in three because the NFC is kind of a joke right now. And so I'm just saying, I'm just saying that.

You're thinking that this team could be one of those seven and nine playoff teams because this format is expanded this year. Include seven teams. Could they be the seventh? Yes, maybe so. But, like, does that mean you're actually a good team? No, no, it doesn't. I think I have to throw in a just saying after how bad some of these other teams are.

Of course. It's like the Vikings aren't the only team that has struggled. Like, Dallas is one in three right now. Like there are other teams, but the Rams have been up and down. Um, the States have been up and down like teams that we thought were just going to like roll right through the NFC this year.

Like it's, it's been just like weird. You know what I mean? So I don't know. I, I think that they're in a position where they're kind of like right in the middle of the pack of the teams that make you scratch your head but like an 0-3 start no one predicted that for this team especially of like all the teams that you

thought were going to like be like winless um or with one win at this point of the the first quarter of the season coming to a close I don't think anybody predicted the Vikings to be that so that's why I think it's a little bit it's a little bit more jarring because you're looking at this being like, wow, like they shouldn't have been here. But then again, a lot of circumstances, and I'm not blaming it all on injuries and all this other stuff, but like there was a lot of stuff that happened over the course of the offseason that, you know, pointed to, well, it's probably not going to be as smooth of a ride as we thought it would be in 2020 so i just will say this before we wrap up in 2017 after sam bradford

got hurt uh we thought after seeing case keenum it might be a 6 and 10 or 5 and 11 team and then all of a sudden it went crazy and i am not saying that this team is 3 and 13 all i'm saying is you can never tune it out with the vikings is you can never tune it out with the Vikings or you can never count anything out with the Vikings. And after today, getting Justin Jefferson going, the offense, you go, if you're going to win the NFL, the offense. That's what you have to do. You have to do so.

The biggest thing that came away was they have the blueprint to win. Like your defense is not going to be able to cut it, but can they at least like bend and not break? Like bend all the way to your like nearly flattened sure but your offense has to be so so so so so on point I don't know if they can do that on a regular basis but we know that they can do it at least at certain points and against certain competitions next week's gonna be fun if they somehow beat Seattle in Seattle even though they've tried so many times, then all of a sudden it's on, everybody. Then we're back.

No more tank talk. And then it's like on to the playoffs. So great, great stuff, Courtney. Any parting shot? Anything that I left out that you wanted to mention before we go? No, I think it's crazy how the swings of these seasons can go. And I'll think back to, you brought up 17. I remember Everson Griffin after that Detroit loss,

because they played Chicago in week five. That was the Bradford starts, and then he, you know, was clearly not supposed to be out there because of his knee, all that. But I remember, like, Griffin, like, because they were 2-2 at that point. And that was, like, skies falling. doubt your your top draft pick tears at ACL everything sucks and he's like we're not gonna he's like we're gonna go 4-0 this next quarter and people are like yeah okay that's just that's locker room talk that's motivation and they did and then they you know had a stretch where they won eight straight games or something like that and it can change quickly

based on what's happening the rest of the league who's hurt who's not who's starting to regress which teams win in crazy fashion and last second fashion so there is like I'm not I'm not going out on a limb saying oh the Vikings won they're one and three right now they're going to go four no this next quarter and then you know by, and then by the time the midseason point of the season, they're going to be like 5-3. I'm not saying that, but I think that it is possible, more possible to have a bounce back than I think people think. But in the same vein, it's like,

you know that professional athletes are never just going to tank. I really don't believe in that. I mean, the tanking philosophy makes sense, sure, but you can't just be like, you know that professional athletes are never just going to tank. I really don't believe in that. I mean, the tanking philosophy makes sense, sure. But you can't just be like, please miss this tackle so we can go get Trevor Lawrence. So you can let this guy blow by, you can get a touchdown. Right. But this team is too talented to be a tanking team. Yep.

I will stick with that no matter how many more games they win or lose. All right. Well, I appreciate your time, as always, after this entertaining contest. And we'll get back together again at some point. And, yes, you will be picking the schedule. And there might be a pie chart thrown in. So lots to happen this week. Courtney, thanks for your time.