Purple Insider - a Minnesota Vikings and NFL podcast - The Vikings let Justin Jefferson dominate in win over Chargers and Zimmer hot seat talk is tabled

Episode Date: November 15, 2021

Live from Los Angeles Matthew Coller joins Sam Ekstrom to talk about the Minnesota Vikings' win over the Los Angeles Chargers. How giving the ball to Justin Jefferson became a huge talking point with Mike Zimmer after the game and how Kirk Cousins's aggressiveness in the second half led them to a win. This is why the Vikings always hang around: Zimmer schooled young Brandon Staley and Justin Herbert in an impressive 27-20 win in which all the Vikings' decisions to go for fourth downs paid off. Now are they back in the playoff race for real? Are they a favorite for a No. 7 seed? Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Want to remind you before we get started, the TickPick is the exclusive ticketing partner of Purple Insider and the Blue Wire Network. TickPick should be your first choice to buy football tickets because they save fans money by never charging service fees ever. Hello, welcome to the Post. The Vikings actually pulled off a close game to beat the Los Angeles Chargers postgame podcast. Matthew Collar and Sam Ekstrom. I apologize if I'm talking a little quietly because I'm in the press box and everyone is kind of working right behind me. So, Sam, we have to start out with this game, with Mike Zimmer's postgame,

which was probably the most interesting thing that came from this, aside from a declaration that I need to make later in the show. Stick around. Mike Zimmer, after the game, made it clear that he wants the football to go into the hands of Justin Jefferson. He made it clear that he told everyone this week, you are to throw the football into the hands of Justin Jefferson. And he was annoyed at Clint Kubiak for even mentioning that they were going to throw the ball to Justin Jefferson because he didn't want anyone to know that the ball would be going to Justin Jefferson. And lo and behold, Sam, the ball went to Justin Jefferson nine times for receptions, 11 targets, 143 yards,

and an unbelievable sideline catch to put this game away. Essentially, the fourth down did it going for two. But this is what everyone has been screaming for, for an aggressive offense to push the ball down the field more often. They did it in the second half of this game. Sort of reminds me a little bit of Carolina where you get get it in spurts but not in the first half and the way that the second half started with the chargers uh scoring right away it felt like here we go again and then only when pressed back up against the wall the vikings decide yes we will force it to jefferson and sam

it worked and now the vikings are right back in the thick of the playoff race. Your thoughts. Yeah. Insinuating that Clint Kubiak tells us too much is a hilarious place to start. Especially when the thing he told us was the most obvious thing in the world, but digressing from there,

Jefferson makes the, the catch on the first touchdown drive in the third quarter that got the whole thing going. I mean, it's 17-13. You're behind. You've allowed 14 straight. And you need to do something, anything, to flip this script of the offense disappearing in second halves and letting leads escape. So that was a huge catch in the game. He has the third and five catch over the middle that kept the next touchdown drive alive. I can't remember where it

happened, but he had that unbelievable yak where he just beast moded and carried chargers across the first down line. I want to say it was a long conversion too it was like a second and 20 perhaps um and then obviously the the big one the leaping grab on the third and six on the sideline held up upon review got interfered with honestly like if that had been overturned then people are screaming at the refs because he got grabbed. I mean, he got, he got interfered with in the same way that Mac Alexander interfered with Allen earlier in the game. I think it was Allen. So like that would have been probably a little bit of injustice. Um, but like four big time notable grabs, and I might even be forgetting a couple fantastic work, um, you know on jefferson's part and proof that any target his way is a good target um so credit cousins i think for coming into his own in the second half because oftentimes

a bad first half can paralyze him um for the duration of the game they start out one of eight on third down he loses a fumble he seems skish. He's throwing it short of the sticks. And Mike Zimmer was pretty honest after the game too, saying that he's been getting on Kirk about working the ball downfield. And he was probably more honest than we've heard him about that situation. And even someone asked, I think about, yeah, well, Kirk, how great is it that Kirk doesn't throw interceptions? And Mike said, well, he's got to be aggressive too. And I think finally in the second half here, particularly to Jefferson, he was and made some great throws.

And the fourth down to Conklin as well under pressure was a great effort. So the Vikings did what they should have been doing all along. They got the ball to their best weapon, and they get rewarded for it. And, you know, boot on the throat was in play today. They did it. They did what they needed to do, and they get a win that staves off the talk of a lost season, at least for now. Well, and this was something that we discussed earlier in the week

when we were talking about who is to blame for Justin Jefferson and Adam Thielen not getting the football enough. And I pointed out, you know, that there's no way that Mike Zimmer doesn't want to throw it to the top wide receivers. It just doesn't make any sense. And if you're Clint Kubiak, it would be your favorite thing in the world to have those two wide receivers. So of course they're trying to do this, but it's not happening. And maybe that's a combination of play calling and the lack of aggressiveness of a quarterback who has generally been very risk averse for his entire

career. Sometimes it even gets him sacked when he's being risk averse. That was not necessarily the case today or this year, but it has been at times in the past. And I think that what Mike Zimmer just did was came out and said, see, I've been telling him and I want him to do that. And if he doesn't do it, then it's because he didn't do it.

Not because I didn't tell him to do it, which is just a very interesting way to handle a postgame podcast. Or I'm sorry, press conference after you win is to come out and say, see, I told you guys that I was the one who was telling him to do this thing that works all the time. And it was the quarterback who wasn't doing it. And it's usually don't see, um, jabs thrown at other people in post-game press conferences after a win, except for us usually like in Zimmer said, wow, this team's had a lot of arrows thrown at them this week. Like, yeah, cause you're three and five. Um, the arrows aren't being thrown at teams this week. Like, yeah, because you're three and five. The arrows aren't being thrown at teams that are seven and one or something like that, right? So I think that's a dynamic that is worth continuing to follow because it really went

along the same lines as we've seen many times where it takes getting down in the game in order to have that mentality. But I'll say this, the final drive of the game is really a spectacle. I mean, it's just something to see. And we could talk about some of the decisions the Chargers made that kind of blew my mind considering their reputation, but they get into what a first and long a second and long, and they end up converting and then they get in third and 20 and find Adam Thielen for 18 yards, setting up a chance to put the dagger in the back of the chargers. And then Mike Zimmer takes it instead of trusting his kicker,

which I mean, at this point in Mike Zimmer's career, no shock that he wouldn't want to trust the kicker unless he absolutely has to. And they end up getting the first down. And I think what that showed you right there, though, was they actually took the approach to try to win the game, to go after it at that point. That early in the second half there at the end, or I'm sorry, at the end of the second half where they sort of did the thing they usually do, give up a score, they don't answer back. And we were kind of going, is this just life on repeat? But in this final drive, that was as impressive of any drive as they've had, I think all year long to be able to get pushed back a couple of times. And we'll talk about some of the issues today, including penalties, but to get pushed back a couple of times and say, there's one cheat code that we have in this world. And it's these two wide receivers

and to make those throws in those situations and it's these two wide receivers and to make those throws in those situations where so often they have checked down and they have not taken advantage of those spots and not put the game away and allowed teams to stay in it to be able to do this and to beat a team that at least for now has a winning record not totally convinced that the Los Angeles Chargers will finish with a winning record. But for now, it feels like it's big because it's a win and it keeps them in the playoff race. It feels like it's big because they've may have turned a corner in throwing to Jefferson and Thielen. But I also don't want to go so far as to say, ah, they have all the answers because we have seen this change from week to week. But for now, those things were

exactly what everyone's been calling for. And that makes it a big win, even just from that perspective. Yeah, no doubt. When you get over the hump after you've been struggling for weeks, yeah, that kind of breakthrough can be galvanizing. And I think Zimmer is still going to harp on the mistakes and they could have cost them dearly. For Brian O'Neill to hold right out of the gate on that final drive. I mean, it seemed like you could almost you could see the script. You could almost see Herbert leading a drive to tie the game and then and then Staley, you know, saying, go for two, let's win it. And the Chargers like breaking their hearts again. So credit the Vikings for overcoming that. Dalvin Cook had an incredible 11 yard run. And again, while you're running on

second and 17, I almost am unhappy that they were justified in it because Dalvin Cook stays upright and gets 11 yards, which opens things up a little bit on third and six. Then Jefferson makes the amazing catch. Then a face mask on Stocker sets them back again. I mean, it was the topsy-turvy final drive, not the most orthodox execution in the world. But speaking of aggressiveness, let's talk about the fourth down at the goal line too, you know, where Zimmer decides to roll the dice down by four. I think that's fairly consistent with how he's operated in the past. He's never been too shy about those goal line fourth downs. I think he probably does that in a lot of situations, but it was still, you know, a gutsy play, which, you know, the extra linemen running a route and,

you know, basically it was brandle or conklin like it was all kind of riding on those two options and um and they managed to convert but the the more aggressive team was the winner in this game i think that was clear and i'm shocked that it was mike zimmer going up against a notorious risk risk taker in staley who'd gone forward on fourth down 17 times. And Mike Zimmer pointed that out on Friday and then Zimmer ends up being the one to, to get it done.

Um, and I, I'm not, I, I love the call on fourth and two to go for it. I mean, a 54 yard field goal, and then you still leave time two minutes or you end the game right there.

Perfect, perfect decision. I thought, and, um, yeah, the Vikings absolutely right there. Perfect, perfect decision. I thought, and yeah, the Vikings absolutely deserve, they were the better team and we'll probably get into this caller, but plucky defensive performance too. I think the offensive breakthrough is the story, but the defense overcoming like five of their top seven players out is pretty big, pretty big as well. Right. But to talk about the decision-making

that you just alluded to I, you know, with Zimmer, it really is, you know, how they say it's a week to week league. It is a week to week thing on whether this week, he's going to be a little overly conservative with those fourth downs and punting or the next week, he's going to be really aggressive. And I think that the times where he has been really aggressive, even when he has said after games, oh, I regretted that one, he usually gets it right when he decides to just put the pedal down and go for it and go for that fourth down at the goal line, which you mentioned, which was a real game-changing play,

Kirk Cousins and an excellent throw, or just everything he could get behind that football to get it up over the defender and into the hands of Tyler Conklin, a true game changing play. And that's the reason you see, I think a lot of teams going for it is because these games are so tight teams can score quickly. You have to take advantage of every chance that they give you. And the other thing too, is that it's almost like people forget that the odds of the other team driving 97 yards are not super high. And the way that the odds of the other team driving 97 yards are not super high. And the way that the chargers were playing offense, very spotty today on off

on offense. And I thought very uninventive for again, a team that is talked about as being cutting edge. I did not see a football team that was cutting edge, not even close today. And Zimmer dominated Brandon Staley in the decision areas. Brandon Staley did not go for it on a couple of fourth downs where I thought it was obvious that you should. In fact, when they ran out there and did the whole, we're going to take a penalty and punt thing on fourth and three or fourth and four, I thought, why is Brandon Staley so scared today? This is a defense that's missing Daniil Hunter, Anthony Barr, yada, yada, yada. And he's supposed to have an elite quarterback, which I'm not ready to declare Justin Herbert yet, but an elite talent at least.

And they just say, no, no, no, we're just going to play it safe here in punt. What? That's not what you've been doing all year long. And then at the end of the game, now maybe this wouldn't have mattered because the Vikings did what they were supposed to do on the offensive side. But you have to go if you want to win the football game, you have to go for a touchdown there because then there's an outcome where you win. If you just kick a field goal, you're sort of saying, well, we're playing for a tie. And that really, I mean, decidedly hurts your odds. I saw the fourth down bot tweeted it out, but by the numbers, a tremendously poor decision. And so on the other side, you have Zimmer making great decisions on fourth down that all click today and the type of decisions you should make when you're three and five and you need something really great to happen to get you back in this race. You need fourth down plays.

You need a big fourth down and two conversion. 54 yard field goal maybe is a coin flip. Two yards is more of a 70, 80% play when you have one of the best running backs in the NFL. So great decisions by Zimmer. And this is where one week worth, and he even managed the timeouts at the end of the first half correctly to give them a lot of time to drive. So like one week, we're talking about, wow, there were some problems there, and he called two timeouts at once and different things like that. And the next week, here we are saying he nailed it. He got it exactly right.

And so the whole second half was exactly what Vikings football was supposed to look like this year. And I thought the Carolina one was a little more fluky, and they still gave up a 96-yard drive at the end. And so you couldn't really say, oh, wow, they, they got it right. That's exactly what they're supposed to be. But today in the second half it was, but it wasn't really in the first half. That was kind of the old version of them.

So still, I would not put this under a complete game, but I would say, here's the declaration that I teased early in the show. Tell me if you agree, Any conversation about Mike Zimmer being fired in the middle of the season is now over, Sam. I think that's it. I think when you win this game, you are decidedly in the playoff race. After Green Bay, the schedule loosens up a little.

I cannot see a scenario now where we're talking about anyone but Mike Zimmer coaching the rest of this season. I agree. Because even if you lose against Green Bay, you're still pretty close to the playoffs. Um, and anything beyond that is just, it's too late in the year. I mean, you're not like a change. There would only be sort of a change to, for, I don't know, whatever principles the Wilfs think that they're promoting. Like I, it wouldn't be to like turn the season around.

It wouldn't be one of those moves trying to light, light a spark. Cause if you lose the Packers and then lose like another game right after that, you know, it's probably, it's probably too late at that point. So I, I don't, I don't think there's going to be a move. And frankly, I'm not sure there was going to be like, anyway, the more I thought about it, the more I felt like there's just too much history between the Wilson Zimmer there's too much mutual respect I mean it's not Childress even though I've teed that up for weeks like oh they're gonna lose to the Packers

and be three and seven but I don't know if that was ever really gonna happen I think now it certainly is not gonna happen if they lose to Green Bay, not coming off of this win, which I think was one of the more complimentary performances of the year. I think the offense starts well enough to build the 10-point lead. They finish great. The defense was pretty solid all the way through, and special teams was really good too it was kind of a three-phase performance something that i think this team can build off of they did a lot of things that they'd been you know struggling to do and they did them well so i i would be shocked at this point honestly if if uh if anything happened because you lose to green bay you look around you and you say, well, we're still competing with

the soft underbelly of the NFC, and that playoff spot is still kind of right there. It's very tantalizing. The conference record is going to win them a lot of tiebreakers. They've got the tiebreaker against Carolina. They might have it against San Francisco. There's a lot to like about their chances, and New Orleans looks bad too with Simeon. They're probably not going to win many more games. So it's still there for you, as crazy as that is. They're not in playoff position now, but half a game back with eight games to play?

Yeah, that's a long time. Folks, Minnesota football is rolling along and there's no need to exhaust yourself looking all over the internet to find minnesota football tickets anymore that's because tick pick that's t-i-c-k p-i-c-k is the original no fee ticket site and the only one you'll ever need for your go-to for all NFL tickets. TickPick got rid of those awful service fees that the other sites charge, which lets them guarantee the best price on all of their NFL tickets. Don't believe it? If you could find better prices for the same seats on another ticket site, TickPick will give you 110% of the difference on the purchase price. We've got some very exciting

primetime games and our friends to the east in Green Bay will be making their way to Minnesota soon as well. So you want to go to tickpick.com slash insider to save $10 on your first order for Minnesota football tickets. Again, tickpick.com slash insider to save $10 on your first order of Minnesota football tickets. Yes, it is. And they have Detroit. They've got two Chicagos. So there are winnable games on the horizon, but there's also very much coin flip games like, you know,

Pittsburgh with Ben Roethlisberger is not a great team, but they have a great defense. So you can always potentially lose that game. You'll have to go to Lambeau. You have to go to Soldier Field. Those are very difficult places to play. So we can't be declaring that they're going to win this spot yet. It's just that all of a sudden with one win, we kind of knew this. If they were able to split even one win, even one loss against Green Bay, you're still very much in the center of that

race. And if you win both, then your odds to get to that seven seed are very high. And this is what we talked about earlier in the week that when I looked up the playoff odds for the Vikings, I went, that's actually pretty high compared to what their record is and how the season feels like it's on the brink. And it was on the brink today. If they lose this one, then you're going back home thinking, okay, now you're talking about competing with the New York giants and Washington and those types of teams that are very poor and don't have much to say for themselves. Although, I mean, who knows with the NFL, right? Who can win and lose on a weekly basis if Washington could beat Tampa Bay today? Good for you, Taylor Heineke. But you look at this playoff race, and then we'll get to some other things about this game. But there's basically going to be two spots up for grabs

and about five or six teams fighting for them. All of a sudden, Philadelphia is playing a lot better. The Falcons got destroyed today. Carolina has a better quarterback now with PJ Walker and Cam Newton is going to be playing for them at some point soon. I agree with you on the saints. They'll probably fall out of this,

but if somebody gets hot, like there's still a lot of work for this team to go to get one of those playoff spots. And so we'll have some discussions based on that as we go forward in the week. But you wanted to talk about the defense. One thing about the defense today that I'd say is offense is sometimes the best defense. 36 minutes of possession for the Vikings offense reminded me a lot of what they did against the Seattle Seahawks earlier this year, where you had the ball for a long time. And even though in the first half, they did not convert anything for third downs in the second half, they totally turned that around and started converting third downs. And they finished

the game five for 14, which is actually good compared to where they started. I think you mentioned one for eight and it feels like so often, Sam, that this offense just entirely rests on, do you hit on third downs and do you find ways to convert those? Or are you checking down to the fullback on third down and long and then punting the ball away? I don't know if that's a sustainable way to succeed. That's one of those things that's very much like noisy or volatile. Some weeks you'll do it. Some weeks you won't do it. But that's this team is some weeks they do things and some weeks they don't when it comes to especially the offensive side. But I thought that was a huge factor when you come into a game where you just played 98 plays.

If you let them control the ball, then you're probably going to just get worn down and lose. And their offense did not allow that to happen especially in the second half well i felt like the defensive replacements were again very valiant cam bynum had some great plays including a sack i mean you're you might be looking at the future safety once xavier woods moves on like that i think think this establishes that Cameron Bynum is part of the plan. Nick Vigil, man. I mean, he continues to impress me every time he gets an extended look. He had an amazing rep where he was like step-for-step with Eckler on a wheel route. He almost got a sack of Herbert. I felt like he was around the play a lot. I think he did a really good job. I thought Dalvin Tomlinson sort of did exactly what

you would want him to do, you know, and, and he had a big knockdown. He had some good run stops. I thought that Tomlinson was great. I mean, I thought everywhere where they had perceived weakness, they had people stepping up. Eric Hendricks had, you know, made another huge splash play. Um, really, really impressive. Like I I'm. I liked what that defense offered with their backup players and maybe kind of softens the narrative that they have no depth. I thought that was probably encouraging for the defense. But on offense, you know what their third down to go average was going into the game? Was third and 8.1.1 worst in the NFL. I don't know if that's going to get better today. I think, I think it was still pretty bad today. Um, and they found a

way to convert a couple of them. So, so that reflects what you're doing on first and second down that reflects all of those second and 10 runs that don't work. You know, establishing the run on first, you know, getting chunks on first down or, you know, rarely does this team set up, set itself up with second and short. It seems like they're always struggling just to, to create those manageable third downs. So that reflects on Kirk that reflects on the play calling, I think, you know, kind of 50, 50, a little bit. And the running game calling, I think, you know, kind of 50-50 a little bit.

And the running game was just enough today. You know, much more steady than last week, where it was three runs and diddly squat. Three good runs. And the yards per carry might have even been better last week, but the steadiness today, where you were getting fours, fives, and sixes much more frequently was critical. I mean, Dalvin Cook's final line, 24 for 94 in a touchdown, it's fine. It's not incredible, but I thought there were a lot more successful runs mixed in, and that allowed you to sustain possessions. They didn't have as many three and outs they had one two three five five scoring drives on the day that's a decent number so i think that um you can be encouraged by a lot of offense and still like ask for you know more aggressiveness early in the game you

can still you know seek to uh to make some better decisions instead of running it on second and long. I think there's still a lot to improve and clean up the mistakes. Is Ole Udo at all in danger of losing his job? Because it's week in and week out now. He's becoming a liability. I only see that happening maybe to Mason Cole and not Wyatt Davis. Because we have asked multiple times, multiple people, what's going on with Wyatt Davis. And what we get is, I mean, guys, he's still, um, developing is

what's happening. And we're not allowed to watch the whole practice. We can only watch the first section of practice these days. So we can't tell you during the season, Hey, this guy looks great or terrible at practice. That's only for a training camp. So I can't tell you during the season, hey, this guy looks great or terrible at practice. That's only for training camp. So I can't tell you, hey, does Wyatt Davis look like he's improving on a day-to-day basis? But I can tell you from having interviewed many a coach that if they say, well, you see what's happening is what's going on is then usually it means it's not going particularly well. Because if it was, he'd be the right guard right now. Ole Udo and the holding penalties has just become a huge problem. After today, unless whoever was in second place did a lot of holding this afternoon, Ole Udo will move into first place with holdings in the entire NFL. Penalties, just penalties in general, in the entire NFL. Yep.

And that's just been a huge liability for them at this point. And I don't know if Mason Cole, they feel like he played well enough at center. They could always bump them over to guard. And at least you would have someone who's experienced. I thought that Linval Joseph was pushing him back, but he wasn't getting destroyed today, but I wanted to circle back to the defense and just mention this, that when we talk about Zimmer and we talk about why it's so hard for this team to move on from Zimmer, I think games like this are part of it is because you see how he outcoached a younger coach who's getting all this praise. And we've seen this a lot of times. We saw this against Sean McVay in his first year

where McVay was getting all this hype. Oh, number one offense. McVay's got all the answers. This young Jared Goff's putting up big numbers. And then it's a 24-7 win for the Vikings where Zimmer schools them. And I thought Zimmer schooled Brandon Staley and schooled their offense and Justin Herbert today. And clearly Zimmer just understands how to pick apart the weaknesses of a young quarterback because Herbert did some great things and made some great throws, but he also at times looked like he didn't really know

where to go with the football. Things kind of broke down for him. He was not able to continually push it. And the Vikings, I think, dared them a little bit to beat them with quick, short passes. And when they would do it, they would succeed like short slants and stuff to Keenan Allen, but they just refused to stick with it. And I looked at the final rushing numbers for Austin Eckler, 11 runs for 44 yards. This guy's great running back, but when they got up in the game, they got impatient. Like we we've got to pass, we've got to push it down the field. We can't just keep running the ball. But I almost think if they had just kept running the ball, they probably would have won the game. I mean, they had run three times in a row and then they try this crazy wheel route. That's a low percentage play against Eric

Hendricks. I think if you know anything about Eric Hendricks, it's a low percentage throw and it goes incomplete. They end up having to punt a third downs. Zimmer was very good when it came to confusing Justin Herbert, getting sacks on him, things like that, getting pressures on him just by the way he schemed it up. So I wasn't tremendously shocked. I thought that if the Vikings defense had to be out there a long time, that they would get worn down and eventually lose the game. But they didn't have to be in part because they got off the field in part because Zimmer is able to draw these things up. And it's like every time this team sort of has its back up against the wall and it feels like they're out of it, they're done with the playoff race, it's over and they're

done with this head coach. He kind of pulls you back in with a really well done schematic game plan against the young quarterback that's being talked about as one of the most exciting in the NFL. Yeah, it didn't feel like Herbert could get his feet settled very often today, and I was surprised to see that it was only two sacks at the end of the day, but it was six QB hits. So he was pressured quite a bit. He got knocked around 5.7 yards per attempt. That's pretty poor and very little of it downfield. They were keeping everything underneath. The Chargers were forced to drive the field. And when they had to settle for field goals, that was enormous, especially there at the end when it stayed a seven-point game. So the Vikings gifted them a couple of those pass interference calls and the throws,

you know, for, for the duration of the game, I didn't feel like Herbert was all that accurate. I felt like the pressure, especially forced some inaccurate throws, um, and all the credit to the Vikings for dialing up. I think a lot of extra rushers, they got people coming from the secondary people like linebackers coming around the edge. They were very brazen trying to bring blitz against a younger quarterback, and it worked like a charm. I think that there's probably been better games of Justin Herbert tape, so I wouldn't say that he's not good, but if I watched him with no context just in this game, I would say that he's a lower tier NFL starter.

I'm sure that's not true on the whole, but Zimmer made him look that way, and he did it with a patchwork defense that looks more like the end of 2020 than the beginning of 2021. So props to him, and now next week, presumably, you know, assuming he's healthy, Harrison Smith back. Patrick Peterson is eligible. Maybe Anthony Barr. We have really no clue what's going on with Barr. Maybe this was just a one-week thing. Pierce is out.

Who's the fifth guy? Oh, and Daniil's obviously out. So you might get three pieces back next week. And, you take it on rogers take it on green bay there will be renewed energy i think for that game and kind of like last year you know you're still your super bowl is getting back to 500 um it seems like that's just this unattainable mark that is so hard to accomplish. If you get to 5-5, that again, it feels like that emotional reset with a softer part of the schedule coming up. And then the season is your oyster potentially,

but that's going to be a tough game against Green Bay just keeps finding ways to win. And Rodgers, without practicing all week, beats Seattle today in kind of an ugly one. I don't know about you guys, but I've gotten very good in my life at admitting when I need some help. If you are struggling to figure out how to navigate workers' compensation and disability laws, I've got a team that can lend you a hand. Kemet, Sanford, and Kramer are dedicated and experienced disability attorneys,

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There is no fee or cost for reaching out to them. You do not pay a single cent unless they are successful in obtaining your benefits. So make sure to go to their website, yourminnesotaworkcomplawyer.com. That is yourminnesotaworkcomplawyer.com. This has been an attorney advertisement for Kemet, Sanford, and Kramer. So there's always this feeling or leaning toward celebrating everything that a team did right when they win and criticizing everything they did wrong when they lose. And this was more of a 50-50 type of thing.

There were still problems. You mentioned the penalties that they have, pass interferences, holdings. I don't think those things are going away. This is not random. They commit a lot of penalties because they get beat a lot with their corners and with their offensive linemen. And the early conservativeness was still very much there. And they did not put the Chargers on their heels from the very beginning. They sort of made some stops and were able to put together one really good drive, but that was about it. And so I don't want to say, oh, everything they did today was great. What I would rather do is play a little game and talk about whether I'm going to just give you a statement and I want you to tell me whether it's an overreaction or if it is not an overreaction. Okay. So if, if I tell you that now,

I think we are going to see weeks of Jefferson and Thielen putting up big numbers after we saw this in the second half today, especially an aggressive and Mike Zimmer is publicly telling Kirk cousins in front of the universe on a streamed press conference, which sometimes I think he doesn't realize the whole world watches those. And he thinks it's maybe just us and him in the room. But I mean, he just went in front of everybody and said, Kirk, you better throw it into Justin Jefferson contested situations. If I were to say, I think that from now forward, or at least for the

coming weeks, we are going to see a heck of a lot more of that. Is that an overreaction to what we just saw or is that reasonable? I think it's a little bit of an overreaction. I think that Kirk knows this. He knows that it was better to throw the ball to Stefan Diggs for several years. And he's this is not new information that throwing into justin jefferson is good i think that his dna is still going to tell him to be conservative it's against his nature to make those high leverage throws and i think if there's a defense that's maybe just a little more intent on taking away Jefferson and not allowing those, those, you know,

single coverage situations that I think the same thing can still pop up, you know, cousins will have to be reminded over and over and over again. I think, you know, that to sort of fight his instinct. So I think it's a slight overreaction, you know,

there there's going to be times when the defense sells out on Jefferson and Kirk is going to sense that and that will spook him from throwing it his way. I think that's just the reality. another guy over there how is it that you have a was it second and 16 and there's not two people on justin jefferson i mean remember they used to do this to calvin johnson where they would have two guys on the line of scrimmage against calvin johnson like you might want to do that on a third and long or second and long with uh and they did it in 2018 to theelin and digs when they were putting up those huge numbers they would put two dudes over there. I was shocked. And I thought that was a huge error by the chargers to not do that. And just to Jefferson made them wrong immediately. Uh, yes, it's an overreaction. I mean, think of the rollercoaster we've ridden so far, just this year with Kirk cousins, where it was through three games or four games. It's well, I guess it would have been three. Oh, look at him. Look, looks like the MVP of the league. And then they play a couple of games where they do nothing. And it's all the

Friday mailbag questions want to know how to get out from under Kirk. And then, you know, there's the Carolina second half where he's fantastic. The offense puts up almost 600 yards is crazy. And then the next week it's losing to Cooper rush or, you know, including the bi-week. And like, this is the Kirk coaster that we have followed along. And I don't expect that to change. But I do think that after you've made it clear when you're talking directly to him, when you're talking directly to Clint Kubiak, and when you're talking directly to the world saying, I am demanding that this man throw the ball to Justin Jefferson.

At very least you get a lot of people on your side that way. And when it goes wrong, it's like, well, uh, you do the shaggy. It wasn't me. It was not me who said, don't do that. Um, and I also think Zimmer was very smart here too, because he told Jefferson straight up, we are going to throw it to you. And, uh, that, I mean, it puts pressure on Kirk to actually do it it but it also is i'm not stefan digs in you justin we want to do this we want to get you the ball and so yes i think that it will be better but i don't think that it will be perfect now let me throw this out there and this may be more of a discussion later in the week but your quick reaction to this after this win if they

find a way to beat the Packers at US Bank Stadium oftentimes they do split with the Packers uh they are by far tell me if an overreaction not by far the favorite to get into the playoffs in the six or seven seat I think it's not by far. Maybe you could just take out that phrase and say favorite. But I mean, we, we, I think in Vikings fans know what this team is on paper and they know, like in theory,

this team was supposed to be much better. But the reality of this team is, is they are what they are. They are inconsistent. they blow leads they make curious decisions like that's all part of it you can't just assume that they're going to transform into the team you expected when we've got a much larger sample size of them not being that team um today doesn't change that i don't think a win against Green Bay changes that. I look at who's around them, though,

and I think they have a better potential than the Saints. I think they have better potential than the Panthers, who still, I don't know what their starting situation will look like now that Cam is in the mix, but neither of those quarterbacks scream to me that they're going to go on a run. Atlanta, no fight today. The Eagles are led by Jalen Hurts, who is, I think, having kind of a topsy-turvy year. And the 49ers are injured in a mess.

The Vikings probably have the mosters are injured in a mess. I, the Vikings probably have the most upside of any of those teams. So I'm, I would say favorite. Yes. Especially coming off a green Bay win. Yeah. I'm going to go that they would be the extreme favorite because I think that these other teams are just awful. I mean, I think Atlanta, Philadelphia, San Francisco, Carolina. I mean, I think that they're just super bad. The Saints can hang in because they're coached by Sean Payton and they are going to be in every football game, even if it's Trevor Simeon or if they get Taysom Hill back, like think about that sentence, but they'll be in it.

But I don't think there is good. I mean, the Vikings have their starting quarterback and the Saints do not. So I will say yes, that if they find a way that they are then the extreme favorite and it will be getting much closer to the territory of where we thought this team would be heading into this stretch that we knew that there would be some tough times, but if they could beat Green Bay and get back to 500, then it becomes very much like sort of what we went through last year, where they were fighting to get back to 500. And we knew that there were some teams coming up that were much more manageable. So I will go with that. Uh, the, uh, I guess one last overreaction, is this the

best special teams coach? No, I'm just kidding. But honestly, Ryan Ficken is doing a good job. They finally have had some kick and punt returns, but I'm not going to say that. Is it an overreaction to say that Clint Kubiak is still very much under the gun from Mike Zimmer after Zimmer called him out, which you referenced? And I thought that was very uncomfortable and surprising even for Zimmer to call out his offensive coordinator for saying too much to the media. But does this, is it an overreaction to say that this doesn't do anything for the tension that is on Clint Kubiak, even though we've spent all this time talking about how they had the right offensive approach? Well, I thought it was also telling that mike zimmer said today i told clint make sure you're aggressive in the second half go try and score go try and get first downs like he as if he needed

reminding as if like that wasn't in his nature and mike zimmer tried to tell him something new that there were just a couple of those veiled shots. And I still get a kick out of the saying too much to the media thing, because if you watch his press conferences, it's very vanilla. And I don't think he even said anything controversial. I think he got asked, hey, Justin Jefferson's had nine targets in two games. Is that bad?

And he said, yeah, we want to get Justin Jefferson the ball. That's not that bad. So I hope Zimmer understands that context because we can't afford our... I mean, we're pretty good at getting stories, creating them out of thin air and taking quotes and squeezing them for all they they're worth but i'm not sure we can survive with less clint kubiak content um all that said clint is absolutely still like i think under scrutiny yeah i think so not an overreaction yeah he's he is he's still on probation i don't know you know again i don't know if there's an in-season move to make, but I think that, I think that, that his job, unless there's vast improvement toward the end of the year, um, I think that you kind of do have to evaluate that position going into next year. If Zimmer stays, you still need to look hard at that and say, all right, is this going to get it

done going forward? Can we count on him to improve in year two? That's where I think we're at as of today. Okay. So I just wanted to say that I thought the Vikings caught some breaks today. So for people who think that this team never gets any breaks, how about the referees helping you out when you were going to fake a punt and it wasn't going to work? It looked like the Chargers were all over that fake punt that they were prepared for it. And they probably stopped them and then have great field position. And instead you punted away. They get pinned way back.

They get a penalty. That really helped. Joey Bosa got banged up early in the game and was not the same person the rest of the game. I don't know how many snaps he was out there for the rest of the game because I barely noticed him for the rest of the game after he was down a little bit. So a couple of breaks end up going the Vikings way. They get a win. It's four and five.

And the way I look at it is next week is season back on or hot seat talk back on. And hot seat talk doesn't mean fired in season, but it does mean the future talk because we spent the whole week on that discussion. Reasonably so. They win. They put it on hold for a week. But then when you've put yourself in this hole, you have to continually dig out of it with games like they'll play against the Green Bay Packers. So, Sam, any final thoughts before we wrap from Los Angeles? Something I don't know. I don't know if I want to wade into this.

Do you agree? I'm wading into it. We're going for it. Okay. What did you make of Zimmer's tone when asked about Dalvin Cook? Final question of the presser. Oh, yeah. Forgot about that well you know i think that when it comes to

he he said as a football player which i thought was an important distinction and i would strongly agree as a football player if we were not judging anything off the accusations or past history we would say this guy is one of the truly great players that I've covered. He's got his health issues from time to time, but he, I mean, you mentioned that run on second and 17, it was just unbelievable and he's impossible to bring down. He's incredibly shifty. He's a hard worker. He's actually a very intelligent guy. We've been around him a long time. We know how intelligent Delvin Cook is. And so from a football coach's perspective, who is trying hard to say that's a civil case and not let any of that leak into what he's saying, I thought it was an important distinction to say

as a football player, he's one of my all-time favorites. And, you know, if you're a head football coach in the NFL, you are probably going to deal with along the way, guys who have issues off the field. And I know that some people want us to be like super moralist about this type of thing, but we've covered a lot of people and some of them are great and some of them are not great. And that's not to apologize for anything that he's accused of or anything else. But it's just that if you're asking me about Delvin Cook as a football player, I'd probably say the same thing. There was a little defiance in his tone.

I mean, I'm sure he's super frustrated that Cook is under the gun. And I was, as it started, just like holding my breath a little because it's Zimmer. And you just don't know exactly how he's going to handle that. Putting that tag on it. He's one of my favorite football players. I don't think he crossed any lines of saying he didn't do it or anything that would be anything that I would consider inappropriate. Yeah, no, I like your answer. I'll let that speak for me too. I just wanted to know what you thought how it how it hit you because i watched it i know kind of on on delay after the fact and just kind of like with zimmer basically dropping a mic and walking off the stage after that answer

it just struck me as a little bit odd considering the week we had but also consistent with how he would describe dalvin any other time in history so um yeah also yeah also also consistent in the way that he's handled every off-field issue where if every once in a while he has said like i think it was mike hughes and jayron curse where he said i'm mad about it or something like that. But he also in the position that they're in and the position Delvin is in legally, I don't think it would be a good idea for him to say anything, but here's the football perspective on this. And otherwise he just wants to stay out of it. Um, and I, and I think that that has long been his approach to off field type of things that are going on. Even, you know, he was thoughtful at times with the Everson Griffin stuff,

but mostly it's, yeah, I don't know as a football player, I'm just coaching them. And, you know, again, there are certain people who want to take like moral stances against that.

And I'm not going to disagree with you. If you say, I don't want to cheer for this guy because this is what he's accused of. Like, that's cool with me from a football player perspective, everything he said was right on. and he had a huge game today. So anyway, all right,

Sam, great stuff. Good to talk with you. I've got only a few hours left of 70 degrees out here at night. So I'm going to leave and go get some dinner in Los Angeles and have myself a grand little time. So thank you for all of your time folks. And we've got a lot more

season to go. I think that's what today made very clear. A lot more season to go and we will be here every day just for you. Goodbye, Sam. Goodbye.