Purple Insider - a Minnesota Vikings and NFL podcast - The Vikings out-coached the Lions (Hour 1)

Episode Date: November 4, 2025

Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See https://pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Regulator, mount up. Hey, everybody, welcome to another episode of Purple Insider, Matthew Collar here. The show, of course, presented as always by Fandolph. We'll get to our fan duel question the day in just a minute, but a lot of space here in the first hour of the show for you, your questions, comments, thoughts, and reactions from Vikings and lions. And I got to say that I cannot remember a time. And it's always felt like the NFL will just grab you by the shirt and whip you to the left and right all the time. every week we come back and say, never saw that coming, never saw that coming, and that's why it's so fun, right? And every once in a while, someone will be like, you didn't predict this.

And it's like, okay, sorry. I think that a lot of the things in the NFL are unpredictable. And that's what makes it great. We try our best, but a lot of things that we didn't see coming, including the Carolina Panthers beating the Green Bay Packers, the crazy comeback for the Chicago Bears, the Vikings beating the Detroit Lions. I saw on the little ESPN ticker that it was maybe the biggest Vikings upset in 15 years, which I know is a little spun. They've had a lot of good teams through then,

but nine and a half apparently was where the line closed and the Vikings win the game. So unexpected stuff everywhere in the NFL. But I don't think any season has taken us so up and down as this one, starting with the game in Chicago, where J.J. McCarthy finishes off the game in spectacular fashion. You think, oh, well, there you go. The 2025 Minnesota Vikings, it's going to be a wild ride.

And then Carson Wentz comes in and you wonder, wait, could Wentz do this thing? And I saw a few comments yesterday saying, oh, well, I guess you don't have to talk about Carson Wentz taking the job. That was always insane. Like, okay, I mean, maybe it was always insane, but didn't we just see Sam Donald? Last year, maybe it wasn't that insane. I don't know. We didn't know the extent of McCarthy's injury.

We didn't know how good Carson Wentz was going to be. And it turned out that he wasn't that great and got extremely injured in the process. And then we go into last week thinking, well, the Vikings will probably battle. But the Detroit Lions, I mean, they are a real Super Bowl contender. And this is why we use the betting markets and our friend of Fanduil to give us that more objective view. What does the market think of this team? And Detroit, after their win against Tampa Bay, had elevated all the way up to the top of the Super Bowl contenders, right behind Kansas City, right there with Buffalo Green Bay, a Super Bowl contender. And then Tucker Kraft gets hurt.

And now it's hard to say that Green Bay is the best team in the NFC. And Philadelphia is out here trading for Jalen Phillips. So they're on the rise, right? And the Vikings, it appeared, if everything had gone the way. way that we expected it to go. If Detroit had beaten them, if the Packers had won against Carolina, it felt like the mountain was just going to be way too high. Even if you have a really good second half of the season, you're not going to get there. And you're probably going to get to eight wins. Alas, the Vikings got the perfect results to put them right back in the middle

of the race. So before I get to the coaching things that I noticed in this game and the different things I wanted to break down after reviewing the tape and going to Kevin O'Connell's press conference today, I want to give you the fan dual question of the day, which is suddenly the Vikings shot up after their win to plus 390 to make the postseason. That is still not favored to make the playoffs, but I want you to give me a percentage chance in your belief. So did you go from the Vikings are 5% chance to make the playoffs to, hey, I'm like all in 90%. Like, how much did you change?

How much did that one win do for you? Or are you saying, hey, division game, it was a perfect matchup for the Vikings. I'm still not buying. So maybe it's only a 10% chance or a 5% chance. How much did your percentage chance for the Vikings to make the playoffs change or go up yesterday with the win over the Detroit Lions? For me, it went up from about 5%, which is what I thought going into it. I mean, when you look at those two teams on paper, you look at those. you look at how they had performed heading into that game, you look at the line going into the game and you think I had it as 27, 21 lions going into the game thinking it would be competitive because the NFC North games are.

The Vikings coaching staff is too good to have a Thursday all the way to a Sunday after getting whooped by the Chargers to just have their team fall apart. I did not expect that a Kevin O'Connell team would collapse and no show in Detroit. I thought they would give it a fight. that Detroit would be too talented. And instead, it was the Vikings who were too good, especially on defense and too well coached in that game. So let's get to that. The things that I noticed on tape about the Vikings taking advantage of the Detroit Lions,

the number one thing for me is the on the defensive side. And we'll get to McCarthy, we'll get to, you know, his performance, but really starting on the defensive side, the Vikings using, linebacker blitzes. There are some absolutely crazy numbers that I can't remember ever really seeing before. Maybe Anthony Barr had this at one point. Eric Wilson got six pressures in this game. I mean, I don't know what Eric Wilson's career high in pressures is, but I guarantee it's not six. All of last year, he played 559 snaps and had nine pressures. The year before he had three when he was a Viking in 2020 he had 11 he got more than half of that in one game and one of

the really interesting things about Wilson in this game against Detroit is that he is a clear a middle linebacker but they moved him around to some different spots he actually lined up as an outside linebacker a couple of times on the PFF data he was a defensive lineman which would be like outside linebacker 17 times and in the box 36 I can't can't remember any Vikings middle linebacker, maybe outside of Anthony Barr, lining up on the defensive line that often. And I'm not even sure if Anthony Barr did that. So they switched his role a bit and where he was lined up was in different spots

throughout the game and they just struggled. Jamir Gibbs could not handle him. Jamir Gibbs, crazy stat, allowed seven quarterback pressures in this game. And one of the things that they did to really take advantage is very, interesting where they would take the defensive lineman Levi Drake Rodriguez was in on this a lot Jonathan Allen was in on this a lot they would have the defensive lineman and they would rush one way and the other D line rushes the other way trying to isolate the running back stepping up but sometimes they would run stunts off of that with the linebackers so imagine there was one

where paces on one side and cashman's on another and actually Wilson is an outside linebacker and they run a stunt where Cashman goes from the right side to his left, Pace goes from the left side to the right, and they just don't know what to do with this. And it totally confuses the interior of the defensive line of the, or I'm sorry, the offensive line of the Detroit Lions. And they did this numerous times where they were running stunts from the linebackers, which is something that's not the easiest to pull off.

I mean, it takes time to run a stunt. You need to have the right things up front. You need to be sure that their offensive line is not going to figure it out because if they do and they're running back, if they sort it out, the middle of the field is wide open, which is something that we have talked about a lot with this defense that when it does get beat, the middle of the field ends up being open. But in this case, it wasn't open all that much because the pressure was coming so quick on Jared Goff. So the linebacker blitzes were something that they clearly were not prepared to be able to handle and got. absolutely smoked in doing so. Now, the other thing was Andrew Van Ginkle. And when we talk about out coaching, this is a super talent, Andrew Van Ginkle. When he was out, it's, yeah, Van Ginkle's out. Turner's taking his place. I'm sure we'll get some questions about that later in the show.

I can talk about that. But Van Ginkle is a second team, all pro player who had double digit sacks, multiple pick sixes, and played more coverage snaps than any other outside linebacker in the NFL last year. This is a one-of-one player. You don't replace him. You don't have a 22-year-old. Just say, hey, go be Andrew Van Ginkle. It does not work that way.

And it clearly didn't with Dallas Turner. They couldn't do a lot of the stuff that they were able to do with Van Ginkle. And if you do have the All-22 or you re-watch the game on TV, if it's on NFL network or something, I just want you to watch him before the snap. There are so many times in this game where they've got him moving all over the place where he is standing up and he's going in man cover it like a man coverage look and that's one of the things that they did with him where if someone went in motion he might go with them like a tight end or a running back and he might

give a look like oh yeah I'm going to guard this guy when he goes in motion which is an indicator to the quarterback and then he would just rush and like wait a minute and when o'connell talked today he mentioned the football IQ and the communication ability of Andrew Van Ginkle. So think they're on the road. So it's quiet there. He was communicating. You'll see him all the time turning around,

checking with Harrison Smith, checking with Eric Wilson, checking with Blake Cashman. And those little wrinkles of having him look like, oh, I'm definitely in coverage and then rush, or other times I'm definitely rushing and drop back in coverage. They just gave fits to the Detroit offense. And overall, he ended up in coverage 13.

times in this game, which is sort of typical of Andrew Van Ginkle, but it's not something that you can do with anyone else. So the pairing of the talent, the football intelligence, the strength, the explosiveness of Van Ginkle to go along with the different things that you can do with him really showed up. And there was a great play from Van Ginkle where he's rushing. And he does a spin move, but he realizes, and I don't know how this could even, I don't know how anyone could even do this. It may have been part of the rush plan or maybe he's just insane. He spins and then he sort of realizes that Jalen Redmond is almost at the quarterback. So he just smashes into the guard. He doesn't even try to keep going back to the quarterback. He just smashes into the guard and Redmond

gets a sack. And that's one of those, I don't know, man, instincts. If you have that type of player, you can do so much as a coach. And that stood out to me. I thought Van Ginkle gave them complete nightmares in this game and this is one where even, you know, he grades extremely well as he always does by PFF and he was their third highest graded defender. Cashman was incredible, graded super high. Javon Hargrave actually had a reminder type of game that he is still Javon Hargrave. He played excellent, excellent, especially against the run where he totally dominated his matchup. And that was the other part of it is whoever said week to weekly, league is right. And whoever said matchup base league is right. Because Hargrave and Allen and

Redmond and Levi Drake Rodriguez, they just had a massive advantage over the interior of that lion's offensive line. And I don't think the Lions can win a Super Bowl with that interior. We saw it last year, the teams that went into the playoffs with interior troubles like the Vikings did. And they got eight up by the Eagles, by the Rams. And I think that's going to happen at some point in the playoffs if Detroit gets there. I assume that they will, but they're not flawless. Anyway, Van Ginkle, it's a great grade for him. You could give it 10 more points if you wanted to just for the number of things that they

were able to do schematically against the lions there. So let's get over to the offensive side. And this is where the lions have always been a pretty favorable matchup for the Vikings offensively. And even though they have a different defensive coordinator who had some great looks, and who had some great blitzes that J.J. McCarthy struggled with and there were issues there, every team has to admit that Justin Jefferson is unbelievable. And Kevin O'Connell knows that.

And there were times in this game where his ability to take the coverage in a certain place with Justin Jefferson, when we talk about coaching, taking the defense in a place with Justin Jefferson to where somebody else is one-on-one, somebody else is wide open, whether it's the Jordan Addison throw early in the game, it's 31 yards down the field and everybody else is covering Jefferson and there's Addison running one-on-one, wide open deep, or a play that I really noticed. And I have to shout out JTO Sullivan, who does QB school, absolute must watch because he pointed out something great on the tape when Aaron Jones gets his 30-something-yard run,

which was a swing pass that went backwards and took 30 yards off of J.J. McCarthy's yards per attempt. Maybe they'll petition the league like they did with Will Riker hitting the cable to get the statistics right for J.J. McCarthy. So he throws the swing pass and you're like, where are lions? Where did they go? Well, here's what happened. So the safety, there was a single high safety. Now, normally, as you can envision when I say single high safety, you just think of in the middle of the field, one guy, right? But in this case, Jefferson was manned up on the other side, press coverage, and the safety was so far over there. It wasn't quite the Kelvin Johnson or Julio Jones,

two guys standing right in front of him, but it was kind of that version of a guy playing over the top in that way. He was so far over that the entire field is wide open, is absolutely wide open because he's all the way over there, and the safety is up in the box. So he takes the snap. They fake the handoff, swings it out to Aaron Jones.

Normally, there would be a safety in the middle of the field. He'd be coming downhill. And maybe you dodge him, maybe you get pushed out of bounds. It's an eight-yard play. It's a 12-yard play. It would have worked out great

because they had two guys in the backfield. And there's a fake handoff to Jordan Mason. They crash down on Mason. But there's supposed to be a guy there because of Jefferson and because they put him out wide to the other side. This is known, right?

Put them out to the way to the other side, knowing that the defense would have to push that way, then go the opposite way. Just a very, very crafty and clever play call for the Vikings. And I thought that the easy button stuff overall, there could have been a little more of it from Kevin O'Connell, but there was a good amount. The screen early on third down where they got everybody up,

they get the linebackers in the A gaps, takes the snap and just steps back. and whips it for a screen pass. That's a really good easy button play call to beat a third down blitz. And later in the game, there was a, there was a reverse to Jordan Addison. And that gained 16 yards. And this is the type of stuff that we've kind of talked about in the past of, like, you don't have to be totally gimmicky with your offense with J.J. McCarthy.

There's got to be times where he just drops straight back and throws to somebody else. open. And he did that at times in this game. But you could also give him some help with some gimmicks. Like, gimmicks work. We saw Ben Johnson yesterday. I don't know if you saw this play. He had a offensive lineman lineup as a wide receiver. They threw it backwards to Tyson, Tyson, who threw it back to Caleb Williams. Like some of this goofy stuff, now I'm not, you know, advocating for KOC to go full trick plays. But some of the easy button stuff really does work. and the swing pass to Jones with the creative design and the reverse. Those are nice little plays to just keep things on track.

The screen pass, I thought there probably could have been a few more screens, but maybe they were concerned about something coverage-wise or whatever. We just don't see this team really do a lot of screens. But as far as a game plan goes, and the plays that J.J. McCarthy had in front of them, there was a lot of opportunity there. and some was even missed by McCarthy with accuracy. But the other part was getting him rolling out, I thought was important as well. Using his athleticism to your advantage.

So good example is the touchdown that he throws to T.J. Hawkinson. He's on the move. He's rolling out. It's a classic type of tight end play where the tight end just stops and the safety keeps going. And he's standing there wide open. And on that play, you see McCarthy's arm, you see his athleticism. that ball is rocketed to T.J. Hawkinson for a touchdown, but it's a really good design to get him on the move rolling and give him an opportunity to throw on the run and use his athleticism there. But if something goes wrong, he can just throw it away. And there were a few times where he did the same thing with play calls where he's got to move in and rolling and it doesn't work out or he tries to throw the ball when he shouldn't have.

There was a few plays like that where maybe he should just run for three, four more yards or, you know, just throw it out of bounds. but getting McCarthy on the move, they used play action 12 out of 32 times. I thought they probably could have used it even more, considering that they were ahead in the game for most of the time. But it was largely successful for them. So I thought that was another thing that was well coached. And also considering they've got some really good defensive linemen. So that that's a good thing to try to get him on the move.

Using big personnel is on my list as well as a thing that the Vikings like to do with Josh Oliver, but it wasn't clear. Are you going to really do it here without Oliver in the lineup? And a shout out to Nick Vinette, who is a guy they picked up in training camp. You know, sometimes these guys just come in and it's a camp body, you got somebody hurt or whatever. And all right, okay, this guy has been around 14 teams or something. That's fine.

Just, you know, write a little note in the notebook and move on. But Nick Venet, all of a sudden, here's the guy who's played for. Seattle. He's played for Pittsburgh. He's former third round pick out of Ohio State that's bounced around. He's playing 17 plays in this game because they trusted him to use the bigger personnel

and they did a good job out of those looks. And the league it's always ebbs and flows right. And there was thought maybe a little while back when it was Brady and Manning standing in the shotgun with five wide receivers picking apart

offenses that oh yeah, this is future. The future is the Bryce Petty Baylor Bears of everybody's just spread out running routes all over the place. But you know, you watch Seattle do this. They're using 21 personnel. They're using 12 personnel. And I think the fact that the Vikings, if they get Ham back and they get Josh Oliver back, the trend in the league this year has been more tight ends and getting some fullbacks back. And that's why it's cyclical. And I got the sense a little bit last year. that the league was starting to inch back, and I had a conversation with Josh Mattelis about this,

inch back toward teams using bigger personnel again and working on everything off the run. And what Mattelis told me last week was that because defenses are so aggressive, because they're blitzing so often and throwing so many different looks, that teams answer to that is to have extra tight ends so they can shift either way with the offensive line. He said that makes it a little bit harder. So the Vikings, of course, decided to just rush everything up the middle and make the linebacker figure it out.

But having Vinette in there was that. It was, hey, this is what's kind of working against aggressive teams. And the lines have been aggressive. They've run a lot of blitzes. And the Vikings did not do great against their blitzes. But the point is that they went that way. They were able to run the football more effectively. They could have done it a little bit more.

I agree. but they were able to run effectively with the bigger personnel. So I thought that was another way that they outcoached the Detroit Lions. So those were kind of the main notes of like schematics that I noticed from the game. I did want to throw a couple other player names out there. Donovan Jackson. This was a great game for Donovan Jackson. I think this is his first great game.

I mean, he played really well against Cincinnati too. And he did that hurt. Cincinnati is an atrocity, though. Cincinnati is illegal in most states. But so, you know, the fact that the Vikings offense did well against them. I mean, we saw it every game they've played since. But in this game, he's playing Aleem McNeil. He's playing DJ Reeder.

And he's just outstanding. And one of the things that I've noticed from Donovan Jackson is that when teams run games on him, when they run stunts, he can figure it out. He can sort through what they're doing. doing up front and uses athleticism to recover, to make kind of close plays where it looks like a guy might be able to get an edge on him and just get an arm out there. His feet are very light and very quick. That athleticism is there.

And then I also think we saw this yesterday. Scott, it's just got some dog in him. I mean, he is a soft-spoken, very friendly person, probably one of the most friendly people that I've ever covered. Not on the field, though. He was a beast in this game. He graded extremely well. He allowed one quarterback pressure, 78.1 PFF grade from Jackson, which is not something

we see from Vikings guards historically, and he was their highest graded run blocker. It was a terrific game from him, and I thought Blake Brandel played well, too. They didn't attack Brandel as much as I would have thought, but he played well, too. But I thought Jackson stood way, way out in this game, and I'll throw one more shout out from the tape and then I'll get to your questions and comments. Fabian Moreau, everybody. Fabian Moreau, he ended up playing 23 snaps in this game or was it 24. Let me check. Well, maybe 100% accurate here. Was it 23 or 24? Hold on. I got it. 24. Played 24 snaps in this game. He was targeted, I believe, twice, once. He was targeted once and it was an incompletion. For that guy,

to come in. He's been on the practice squad the last two years. He played a little bit last year in case of emergency and then comes out and plays again. Just, just well done, Fabian Moreau. They needed him in a lot of clear past situations. And he came in and did the job after not playing at all, all season, joining the team very, very late. So here's Venet, here's Moreau coming in, making plays for this team when those guys weren't even in training camp. So that was big for them and it was necessary. And I did want to throw out there that there was a report, I think it was Albert Breer, who reported the Vikings will be looking at cornerbacks, which I'm not

ready to scream at the top of the hills, trade for somebody, but I will say, as short as they are at corner and the opportunities that might be out there for a multi-year player, I know what you guys are going to say, hey, don't trade any more draft capital. but if you are talking about someone who's on the youngish side that if whatever the situation might be, then look, this team remains built to win now and that didn't change. So if there is an opportunity there to get someone, I mean, you look at Philadelphia getting a really good player for a third round draft pick, you can get the picks back. That's another thing that you have to keep in mind.

if you trade a third for someone and get someone good in the last year of their rookie contract, they might stay with you if they really like it, but they also might leave and then you get a comp pick back and it ends up eveninging out. And I know that kicks it down the road for a year, but you understand the point that you can play that game a little bit. I don't think that yesterday changed so much that I would say, wow, you know, go out and spend a first, spend the second, do whatever it takes. I'm not there, but if the opportunity should arise for a corner, that's where they're short.

Isaiah Rogers after the Cincinnati game has struggled. Their tackling has been problematic in the secondary. And as great as Fabian Moreau was yesterday, I don't know if you want him week after week after week. I think Jeff Okuda and hopefully he gets better health-wise, but maybe out for some time with a second concussion. So I think that there might be an opportunity there for the Vikings to do that. and sort of hedge, play halfway. Like, you're not going all in with something crazy, but you're getting someone who could potentially help you improve your team.

So that's where things stand after the big old film breakdown, and it will all come out with all the clips and everything else on the newsletter, Purpleinsider.com football. If you like the show, want to support it in some way, go sign up there. I write every day. So there's lots of additional content, including my article from Ford Field last night. So let's get into your questions, your thoughts. Oh, Asante Samuel Jr.

Yes. Now, this is absolutely. Asante Samuel Jr. Finally, we're at the time where we can have that discussion. I know in the off season, he was by whatever report or made up something was a Minnesota Viking in like March. But clearly he had a very serious injury that he was recovering from. But if you're asking if I'm interested, yes, the answer is absolutely yes, that he would be somebody that could be now and later.

And that's always the point for me when you're making these trades. When they trade for Hawkinson, who scored a touchdown, amazing how everyone looks better when the quarterback is the starter and not the backup. So he catches a touchdown yesterday. A great example, though, of a guy, you can talk about contract or whatever, but when they traded for him, they knew they wanted to have him longer term. And then they sign him to the extension. Like, that's the type of trade that you'd want to make or one that doesn't call.

really a whole heck of a lot, just in general. Michael says Vikings should bring in another running back that can be explosive. Hard to say how many, I mean, look, if Brees Hall is out there, sure, but I don't think that they could get him for a reasonable price. There will probably be a bidding more for somebody like Brees Hall. I thought that Aaron Jones looked great. Now, there's some concern about the shoulder. He gets banged up for the second time this year.

that is worrisome he he looked awesome though he looked like he had his burst back catching the football extremely well and jordan mason i think under the right circumstances has been very good this year when there's opportunity when they can run outside zone stuff he was really good against Cincinnati i know is not a very good team and he's shown some of those flashes of even when you hand him the ball if it looks like a two-yard run it turns into a four-yard run for Jordan Mason, the violence that he has. But I think we have seen a little bit of the shortcomings as it's gone along, especially in past protection.

There were a few times yesterday where you went, oh, that's not, for a guy that big, technically has to be better in the past protection part of it. I think he is explosive, though. And I thought that they ran overall well in this game and could have done it more. And you would like to see at the goal line when you have Jordan Mason on your team. and now that, you know, Jackson is back. You've got fries. You got Derisov, Darisaw.

Does it matter? Yes, it does. Christian Derisaw, big deal there to have him back. Christian Derisaw, I think gave up maybe one pressure or it might have even, I think it was one. Let me look. I think it was one. Let me see. Yep.

Yeah, that's pretty good. That's a pretty big deal to have Christian Darisaw back. So, you know, I thought that they can run behind this offensive line. I don't know if they need to go. trade for someone. But when you're talking about explosive running backs, I don't know who is making them available right now if there's opportunity to get somebody else. I think that their backfield is pretty solid if Jones and Mason are back there. It's not like Madden where you could just go trade for a bunch of stars and you're going to be in good shape. I get where you're coming from,

but I think as long as Jones is healthy, it's still pretty good, the backfield overall. J.M.J. got a, you got a Greyhound? Oh, that's nice. Um, my, where did I get my Greyhound? I got him from, there's a place here. There's a group here that gets, uh, they adopt them from all over the world. He's upstairs, though, now with my wife. He's not down here for right now. And that's why, uh, you haven't heard him playing with toys, uh, knocking my microphone out or any of those things. Nicholas, what was the feel like in the press box after the game? You know, what generally happens in the press box. Well, after the game, we're all just, it's all just quiet.

It's just dead quiet. There's no one speaking in a press box after the game because everyone's working and everyone's writing. So you're hearing like some maybe whisper conversations or quick conversations, but everybody's usually working. As far as as the game winded down, you know, I think that we're, all looking around going, like, are they going to blow this? You know, and when you're talking about questioning certain decisions from Kevin O'Connell when it came to game management down at the goal line, although I will say JJ McCarthy needs to just slide and stay in bounds and not run out of bounds.

That was a little bit on him, that when you have that rollout, and it's a one player type of option where if Hawkinson sneaks out, he's wide open touchdown. you just need to, like, slide down for a two-yard loss and kick the field goal. I promise Will Reichert is not going to miss it from 22 yards as opposed to 19. He'll be fine. So that was a little bit McCarthy needs to do that when he realizes that play isn't there. It's in part to the throw to Jefferson that gets knocked down. That's probably a position where you have to run the football and wind the time down.

I know that was a common complaint. But in the press box, we're having those same discussions. I think more or less, we're just trying to help each other all kind of understand. Like, that's a lot of the discussion in the press box is kind of, hey, did you see that someone's in the blue tent? Or, hey, do you think that they should have done this on this play? Or did you notice that? Or did I see that correctly?

Or who made that play? Who caught that? That's what's usually happening is just trying to help each other understand and get it as accurate as we possibly can. But also as the game is going along, we're also keeping an eye on, hey, the Packers are losing to the Panthers. Did you see this? And this is wild. And this is kind of crazy.

So it's a little bit chaotic in that way. But it's very different from like what it would be in the stands where it's more of we're all trying to make sure that we understand what happened and what questions we need to ask post game and what were certain decisions questionable or were they the right decision or. or why did something happen. That's kind of usually how it goes every week, regardless. But I think that, you know, as the game went along, nobody knew how it was going to play out. I mean, in the second quarter, it looked like they were going to throw it away.

McCarthy throws the interception on the Naylor play, was that second or third quarter or wherever that was, throws the interception, and he also throws another interception that gets called back. And you're wondering, is this thing going to kind of come off the rails? And they were able to get it. it back on with a few really good plays from him that scrambling touchdown to me was one of

those, ah yes, first round pick. Because that was serious speed, serious athleticism, serious acceleration. And there was another throw that I felt the same way where it was like, yep, and that's where you are different from your run of the mill backup quarterback or whatever guy that you draft in the third round and it was a outbreaking route to Jordan Addison where I think it was a little bit of a play action and he lets it rip and that ball is traveling

I mean it is a that's his when he can put everything into it when it's actually right to put everything into it that ball is motoring to Jordan Addison and it gets there in a blink the defender has no chance whatsoever to close on it and so he had those those type of moments during the game so it was a but it was

Rocky. I mean, it's up and down. It's, you know, there's penalties taking away, kick returns for touchdowns and there's, there's big plays and there's sacks everywhere. And we're trying to figure out, like, how is it that Flores's defense is doing this? So those are the kind of discussions that are usually going on. Sean says the season is back on. Do we trade for Jackson Powers Johnson for center depth or go for a corner now that we have life? So one thing that O'Connell did say is that Ryan Kelly was going to start working out on the side. Now, I've said before that I am concerned for Ryan Kelly, just the deepest, deepest amount of respect for him and his career.

And I hope he makes the right decision here. I hope that he exhausts every single option when it comes to medical, second, third, of fourth, fifth, sixth, seventh opinions that he wears the cap, the extra helmet, whatever it takes. I don't want to see anything more. happen to Ryan Kelly. But we know how football players are who that's their identity and that's what they do. So I wouldn't be surprised if we do see Ryan Kelly come back at some point. And when it comes to Jackson Powers Johnson, like, I'm kind of intrigued because you do need

a longer term option. I would love to know what happened there. I mean, it seems like they told him he wasn't going to play center. Is that what happened? It's hard to pay attention to the Raiders. But he was pretty good for them. So that's a bit of a surprise. Corner would be a little more in the range for me. I thought Brandl had a good game overall, but corner would be where I would go, because if Rogers or Murphy gets hurt, you've just got nothing. I mean, clearly they were interested in playing Moreau instead of Dwight McGleathern, so they don't want to play Dwight McLeathern. They loved Zemaya Vaughn all offseason, but we haven't seen him, and he's on the practice squad, and, you know, it doesn't look like he's getting elevated. You need a guy if Jeff Okuda is going to be out long term.

Christopher says, how concerned are you about Turner with how he only got 14 snaps with Van Ginkle back feels really telling of what the team thinks of his lack of snaps? So this, I will admit, I got a little bit frustrated yesterday during the post game when so many comments were talking about Dallas Turner after that win. I thought of all the things to talk about, it wouldn't be in my top 25. Here's the reality of Andrew Van Ginkle. He's incredible. He's not just a guy you rotate. He's not just pretty decent. He's not solid.

Oh, okay. You know, mix him in and out. Give him a break here, there. He's insane. He's one of the best players in the league. And it's just like last year where he was ahead of Dallas Turner and they rotated Turner in depending on the situation. And that was how it was going to work.

And if Van Ginkles out there playing like he did yesterday and Grinard is not coming off the field, then they're probably going to do it again. And you can have that conversation about, well, was it worth a first round pick if you're going to do that with him? And you could go as far down the road as you want. To me, I'm just extremely tired of that conversation. I don't think that Turner showed that he was ready to be that guy yet in his career. And maybe someday he'll get there. We've seen a lot of edge rushers, especially undersized guys, take a while before they get there.

I think that there were some things that were concerning. The fact that they wanted to use Eric Wilson as an outside linebacker instead of Dallas Turner is probably telling. But I also think that, gosh, it just gets so tiring to spend all the time every week debating and talking about a draft pick that's not the quarterback. it's not J.J. McCarthy. That's a little bit different. One player on the defense over and over and over again. I understand why it's relevant and why there's a question there. I did think in his 14 snaps that he did well. He had a couple of plays where he was in coverage or had to make a tackle.

And he made nice plays. He had a couple plays where, yeah, I think it was they threw in his general direction twice. And he made two tackles on those plays. And yeah, he was only in for, he only rush. five times and then drop back five times. I don't know overall still after this sample, like what Dallas Turner is going to be. I don't think he's turned 23 yet.

But here's what I think. If Van Ginkle is healthy, if the D-line is healthy, if the linebackers are healthy, and Turner is a rotational player, then it's going to look a lot like last year where he's a weapon for you. And if that's what he is,

then that's what he is. that's good for your team overall. Is it good in terms of how much was invested in him and all that? Of course, it's not. But as far as the 2025 Minnesota Vikings go, Dallas Turner can be a weapon that's rotating in for you. And he's probably much more effective that way than he is at this point. His career being asked to take 60 snaps.

But to me, it's just not that intriguing when you have Andrew Van Ginkle. And, you know, when they drafted Dallas Turner, I don't know that they knew Andrew Van Gogh. Ginkle was going to be this freaking good. They knew he was good. I don't know if they knew he was, none of us knew he was going to be this good, that he was going to take another step in his career and be an early 30s superstar in the NFL.

So, you know, sometimes things work out a little differently than, then you expect them to. JP says on special teams penalty, I do think the hold on the negated touchdown probably allowed that play to happen. So I'll be curious if Miles Price can look as dynamic. when they stopped the penalties. Well, the 61-yarder he had was pretty good. You know, I think that some of the penalties this year have been absolutely legit and they've helped him.

But the eye test from Miles Price from day one was that this guy is a baller. He breaks tackles like a running back. And I'd like to see him eventually get some offensive reps. I'd like to see a receiver running through corners. I mean, if they can run a jet sweep with him, if they can run a bubble screen with him. I mean, there's a little bit of, like, the same body type.

I'm not saying he's this player as Debo Samuel, where he just looks like a running back. And the way that he breaks tackles, the way that he accelerates, I think that there's a natural skill to this that makes no sense. I just punt returning and kick returning. This is all through history. There's a bunch of guys who you're like,

Marcus Sherrill's, where, what? Like a walk-on, you know, was he a walk-a? I can't remember. Maybe he wasn't a waka. But like a total underdog, maybe he was. I left a Wikipedia, I can't remember. But a total underdog guy undrafted to the Vikings. And he just turns out to be awesome at the returning.

It's happened many times through history. I don't know why. And I think that Miles Price is 100% one of those guys that just has like a really special ability to be able to. spot holes and break tackles. So I don't think that yesterday, the touchdown, I mean, I think the touchdown, yes, it was helped by a hold. There was no question about it.

But I don't think that we should be questioning at this point anymore, whether he is good at returning. He is. Is he going to be great? I don't know, but I think that he is good. Nick, did you get a chance to watch QB school? I did. Good breakdown.

A lot of things JJ did well. A few too many lucky moments too. Yes. And too many inaccurate. it throws. For sure. There's yards left out there. There is one play where Justin Jefferson is one-on-one with Amique Robertson. And Robertson is playing off coverage. And for whatever reason, the Lions, maybe it was because they were blitzing. I don't remember the reason. But he's open over the middle of the field. He's running just a slant. And all J.J. McCarthy has to do is just

pitch and catch. And he's going to catch that and he's going to run 10 more yards. And instead, He throws it 7,000 miles an hour, and it's not that accurate. And Jefferson has to dive for it. And he goes down and he tries to get up and maybe he gets like two more yards. There were yards left out there. The interception is a terrible throw. It just is. And overall, I thought that J.J. McCarthy had tons of wow moments.

A lot of good decisions. I played winning football in the game and deserve 30 more yards on the swing pass. And the stat line would look better. but overall, like, he deserved to be graded pretty well in that game. But there were just, if you're going to nitpick that, like PFF gave him a 63 and a half. Like, I think that's fair because you would have some negative, inaccurate throws, some bad decisions. The interception, yeah, JT really didn't like that interception that got negated.

Because his point was, yeah, it's great that that got negated, so it didn't count. But he didn't know it was getting negated when he threw it. he just made a horrible decision that got picked off. And he didn't see a safety rotating over, which you probably don't see much in college football, but you certainly do in the NFL, where one safety came down, the other safety rotated back.

And then he just throws a balloon ball into the sky. So, yeah, there were inaccuracies and there were some decisions where you went, JJ, no, that's not it, man. There are times where he's trying to do a little too much. and that's where I think Kevin O'Connell is really trying to hammer home. What O'Connell said today in his press conference was that he really liked this one play that actually on tape doesn't look good.

There's a play where he throws a checkdown early to Aaron Jones. And if you look at the play, Jefferson's breaking wide open 20 yards downfield or 15 yards. It's just a great design. He hits his break. He's wide open and J.J. checked it down. and what O'Connell said was that he was saying, hey, that's fine. It's all right.

Like, it's okay if you get a safe completion that moves the sticks. I think they got maybe nine or ten yards out of it. It's good if you get a safe completion. Don't throw the ball deep if you're not 100%. Don't try to make too much out of it. And I think that there were times. There's, you know, a throw on the run where he's rolling to his left. And he takes a huge hit.

Like, JJ, no, man. Like, you can't take that hit. If you're going to roll out there, which he kind of missed the play, someone was wide open, but, you know, that happens. So, okay, you're rolling to your left, but don't whip it down the field and risk an interception when, or risk yourself getting destroyed when you could just, hey, flip it out of bounds. So I think that there's a lot of learning still to be done for J.J. McCarthy.

And that breakdown is terrific. It breaks down everything that he did great and everything that he, you know, needs to work on as he goes forward into this next week against Baltimore. Andrew says to the Fandul question of the day, which was the Vikings are now plus 390 to make the postseason. So not favored, but it's a lot better than it was a few days ago. Give me a percentage change in your belief in them. That is the Fandul question of the day.

And he says, went from zero to more than zero. Ahmed went from 5 to 50% JP from 10 to 35%. I think 35 is probably where I would be. David says I kept suggesting secondary helping you have poo-poot it since the all off-season, since the off-season. I mean, David, I know I see you in the comments, man. I don't think that that I don't think there was poo-pooing, my friend.

I felt that way. I like the way Isaiah Rogers looked. but I mean Rob can attest Rob who was really big on the signing of Jeff Okuda how many times he and I went back on for back and forth on that and I reported all summer long

that Mackay Blackman was struggling and when they got to the end of the off season and they only picked up Fabian Moreau I remember myself saying I think there's another move that has to be made for the secondary so I don't know I do think that I thought Theo Jackson would be better than he's been now this is his first year starting.

I think they still like him and believe in him, but that's concerning. He's also in concussion protocol. So how they're going to handle that? We might see a little more Jay Ward this week if he's not playing and probably best to play it safe with some of the concussions. So we might see Jay Ward, who I thought played well early and maybe could be deserving of more reps.

But no, I mean, I think that that if you were asking like, what are the biggest concerns outside of the quarterback all season? I mean, all off season, I think corner was probably the thing that was at the top of the list. But anyway, so David says they should make at least two moves in the back end to provide depth. Well, yeah, I mean, I don't know about two, but at least another corner seems like it has to happen when they're dealing with the injury to Okuda and some of the struggles that they had. But no, I mean, I agree with you. I was really impressed with Isaiah Rogers in training camp,

and you can kind of see where some of the weaknesses are. I think you've also seen where the strengths are and why he would be a player that would look amazing in training camp. The speed, the explosiveness, all that was very impressive. But, you know, I think that's been a concern really since day one. Let's see. Skollbro from a 5 to 40 percent, a reasonable jump, Skullbro. I think that's a reasonable jump.

Zoomer Chaos is having all the captains talk to the team was a great move by Kevin O'Connell. You know, I don't think anyone has ever or whatever question Kevin O'Connell's ability to read the room when it came to players, right? And to understand what they need at a given moment. I think that's his strength. I mean, the culture thing has been extremely real and matters. And I'll go back to, I probably said it before,

but I don't remember when I said it, that my friend, Sage Rosenfels talked about playing for Gary Kubiak and how those teams were not always worthy of eight wins, but even when it was a bad year, they would get there because the players would buy into Gary and they would fight for him and they didn't want him to have a losing record. And I thought what we saw yesterday on a few different levels from coaching was we saw a lot of the stuff that they've been talking about with McCarthy and we've seen a lot of the stuff that a good play design and good receivers can do for you, which is the whole idea of the 2025 Vikings

was this supporting cast, this line, this receiving core, these play calls, they will elevate the quarterback. And I think that happened yesterday. And then when Brian Flores can cook, and he's got Van Ginkle out there, and Harrison Smith looked really good yesterday, I thought it was by far the best Harrison Smith has looked easily

so far this season. he's everywhere and then yes that's it that's that's what he can do when he's got everybody now they've got more to prove going forward here and they still did allow some big plays and 24 points and you know if jalen naylor doesn't catch that ball at the end you're probably talking about the lions finding away so it's not perfect but i think when you have a coaching staff that is this good that you're usually not going to completely fall out of it and i think that's why we were also shocked at the results against the Chargers and just how it went because usually this coaching staff has not had games like that. And so that was where the alarm bells were going off.

Let's see. Sean says a hundred percent confident the Vikings winning the North and getting into the playoffs until they lose a division game. Okay. Well, you got the caveat there. Sure. I mean, if they win every division game, they will win the division. The matchup in Green Bay. Gosh, how things changed yesterday. And I don't like to talk about it this way as in, hey, what a good break for the Vikings that Jaden Daniels snapped his arm. Like, that's sick and horrible. But also, it's a fact that Tucker Kraft and Jaden Daniels going down. Those are two of the best players in the NFL. And they're lost for opponents of the Vikings that are coming up. it's a big deal that they're going to go in a couple of weeks down to Green Bay and they've got

a game against Chicago first. Chicago, obviously no joke, but they're going to go to Green Bay and not have to face Tucker Kraft and they're going to play Washington and not have to face Jaden Daniels. And it's just a different situation now in the entire league. And that's like how everything changes from a week to week. But injuries is part of that. So no, I mean, I wouldn't go 100%, but they can get us a lot closer there with, I mean, let's see, next four games, you've got Baltimore, Chicago, Lambo, and then I forget what's after that. But I mean, if you can win, if you could stay at 500, if you can win three out of four, that would be incredible.

But if you can even stay at 500, you've got a chance to hang in the race and be in the playoffs. Let's see. KC. Shelf, or K-shelf, we'll just call you K-C. K-K-Fer McCarthy is and was Darisaw and O'Neal. I mean, yeah, like having one of the best tackles in the league is pretty important. I will say that there was, I think the biggest thing for McCarthy was, yeah, he did get away with some stuff.

But I think it was just not giving the ball away. The one interception is not great. But overall, that was his, by PFF's charting, his one turnover-worthy play. And I don't think they counted the play that the first. flag was thrown on the deep balls. So I thought that the biggest difference against Atlanta, he had some nice scrambles. He had some nice throws against Atlanta. But the biggest two differences were the quick sacks and then not the catastrophic mistakes. He did take some sacks, but not catastrophic strip sack, fumbling snaps, stuff like that. There was the one that looked like it

was maybe a miscommunication with him and Brandel. But, you know, aside from that, still the sacks were an issue and I think that's where it does show you that quarterback is responsible for sacks sometimes because the offensive line overall did a pretty good job and I'm curious yeah so how about this this is proof of this the PFF charting credited the offensive line with only one of the five sacks that J.J. McCarthy took in yesterday's game which sounds right like holding out of the ball scrambling out of bounds is technically a sack. I personally don't love that. But I agree with you, though, that, you know, Darisaw and O'Neill, I mean, if you're playing without them, the drop off is so enormous that it's really, really hard, really, really hard

for anybody to play quarterback. That's inexperienced, especially. Jay is giving JJ a B. Maybe you meant to write B plus. I wouldn't go B plus. I would probably give it more of a C plus of a performance for J.J. McCarthy, I mean, coming out with a win, using your legs, hitting some big shots down the field, like, all that's fantastic. But there was a lot left out there. And that's what he was saying. That's not just me in my film study. He said that after the game. He said, hey, there's a lot more meat on the bone was the exact word that he said. He said he's got a lot to clean up, some of the throws on the run, some of the inaccurate passes. So it's a great baseline when you can win two games where you don't feel like he was the sharpest.

So now stack weeks together and get this guy on a roll to where you play a game on Sunday, you break it down on Monday, you get back and put in the game plan on Wednesday, you get to practice. Like these are things that the 2025 Vikings haven't had. They haven't had it with anybody,

where it's just, as O'Connell has said, Sunday to Sunday, but it's so disruptive the stuff that they've had with the travel and the Thursday night and the Monday night and all that stuff, it is what you get when you have a lot of hype, but it hasn't been the easiest for him and then the injury as well. So now I think he's got a real opportunity to go Sunday to Sunday and start to get in a rhythm and get better when it comes to some of the basic stuff

that he made mistakes on. Let's see, Zuma, K.O. Lyons 36% Packers 34 and Vikings 30%. Okay, fair enough. I mean, I would include the Bears, though. you can't totally say the bears are out of it. They're still in that conversation. First name, last name, Vikings are back in control of their own destiny.

I think that's true, yeah, because they play a lot of division games still left to go. Four division games out of their final nine really does put it a lot in their hands, but they can't have bad losses. You know, they can't lose to New York late in the season. They've got to probably beat Dallas. Like, I think if you split the final four games, in the division and end up four and two in the division for the year, it gives you a great chance to make the playoffs,

but you've still got to win some of these. Washington now is a beyond winnable game. Like Washington's one of the worst teams in the NFL now that Jay and Daniels is out. So there are some suddenly very, very winnable games that are on the schedule. And, you know, I think that that percentage chance should go up. I don't think to a coin flip yet because they're still in last place. But it goes up to how about we say, like 40% somewhere in that ballpark to me that they could make the playoffs that was the

fan dual question of the day there's still plus 390 on fan dual to make the playoffs but how much did your percentage go up first name last name says for the fan dual question i have no idea how likely the playoffs are for this team but i'm feeling a lot better about how exciting the rest of the year will be to watch either way so the biggest thing for me is that the health o'connell mentioned this when he was asked about the trade deadline is he He basically said, it feels like we traded for a bunch of players just to get guys back. And if other teams are getting more hurt as you're getting more healthy, sometimes it just times out that way.

And their playoff odds could be higher than other teams just based on the fact that they are healthy now. Hunter says, what do we do now with our expectations for this team? Are we back to expecting this team to make the playoffs or finish above 500? Or is that an overreaction? I would say that it is not an overreaction. to say that this team should, the rest of the way, be very competitive in the race, in the NFC. Now, sometimes when you put yourself behind playing a backup quarterback

with a bunch of injuries, it just doesn't get there. How about like the 2002 Detroit Lions that went 9 and 8 and they fought like crazy? They were 1 and 6. They fought like crazy. And at the end of the season, they didn't make the playoffs because of tiebreakers. But man, did you feel good about where that team was going? right so the Vikings might be that and they might not make the playoffs because of that start

but i think that you the expectation now should be to get to a point where you end the season and we're not talking like we did last week like we're not having this like existential crisis of what is this franchise even supposed to do with itself yesterday you saw all the things that they thought they were getting hardgrave was great Alan was great hey look blake cashman harrison smith andrew van giggle they're really big deal really really big deal on this team like yeah that's it that's what's supposed to happen that's what it's supposed to look like so you want a lot more of that as you go to the end of the season and if you only win nine and you end up missing the playoffs because of tiebreakers well that's a heck of a comeback from where you were at one point which can't be completely excused but certainly can be explained from the injuries and the quarterback play that they had. At very, at very least now, they have some winning quarterback play with the ability to scramble, make some big time throws, you know, things like that. Jay says Fandle question currently in 10th in the playoff race. We have to have a lot of teams lose. I think we can finish 10

and 7. 10 and 7 might be enough, but that's, that's my whole point. If you find a way to 10 and 7 from where they were, which was halacious, I would even say 9 and 8. then you've done a really good job. I think you've done a really, really, really good job to get there, considering how low it was. But I'm also going to have to ask Manny Hill and Brian Murphy, what they think of that as well. They will join very shortly as soon as I see Murph pop up in my little screen.

There he is. There's Murph. So let me get to those guys. We'll continue to answer and respond to your questions and make sure you're answering that Fandul question of the day. So give me one second here. And we will get Brian Murphy and Manny Hill in.