Purple Insider - a Minnesota Vikings and NFL podcast - The Vikings win vs. Titans but struggle to put them away

Episode Date: November 17, 2024

Well, like last week, the Vikings struggled to make it look easy against a 2-7 AFC South team in a 23-13 win over the Titans. Matthew Coller and Dane Mizutani will be reacting to the Vikings-Titans game shortly after the final whistle in Tennessee. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Hey everybody, welcome to another Purple Insider post-game show. Matthew Collar here. Did not make the trip to Nashville with what seems like the entire state of Minnesota that took over yet another road team's stadium. So we will spend the next little while here breaking down the Vikings beating the Tennessee Titans 23 to 10. And at some point, Dane Mizutani of the Pioneer Press, who is in Nashville, will be joining us from the press box there. And, well, there's two real ways to talk about this game. We could say, look, the Vikings are eight and two.

Who cares how you got there? Who cares how it looked? we could say, look, the Vikings are eight and two. Who cares how you got there? Who cares how it looked? They did the job. They beat three straight bad teams. And now they are in a position to just go four and three the rest of the way. And they finish with a 12 win season, which would be one of their best seasons of the last 20 years, 2022, 2017, 2009. That's the only seasons recently that have reached that threshold of winning 12 games,

and they just barely got to be over 500. The rest of the way to do so with winnable games against decent teams, that's the position that they've put themselves in by winning this game. And once again, they out gained a little less on the out gained yardage, but especially in the first downs, they had the ball for longer. They had, I think it was 24 to 11 in first downs and the Tennessee Titans never actually came all that close to making things interesting. They got the 98 yard touchdown and then never did really anything again after that. And Flores' defense made whatever adjustment they needed to make. There were a couple of completions, some really terrible penalties,

and the Tennessee Titans are every bit of a 2-8 football team. They made mistakes all over the place. They committed terrible penalties. They allowed tons of pressure on Will Levis, who I actually thought played a pretty good game overall, considering what he was dealing with, with the lack of weapons. They couldn't run the ball against the Vikings. So it was a fairly dominant performance again, similar to

last week. And once again, you walk out of this thing at eight and two in a great position and you win with largely defense, but the offense moved the ball. Sam Darnold had a safe day. He didn't throw an interception today and he should have actually had a better day. He didn't throw an interception today and he should have actually had a better day. If Jalen Naylor could have let that ball come right into the mitts, then this is much more of a blowout rather than still a pretty solid two score win. That's the bigger picture on this victory from the Vikings is that they didn't have the meltdown at any point. They didn't blow it. They did what they needed to do when they came out of the Rams game. I remember how frustrated everyone was with that loss. And the big thing for me was look who they're going to play here going forward in the

next three football games. If they blow any of those games, then it's this season was a scam. The first five weeks don't mean anything, et cetera, et cetera. But that's not what happened. They won all three of these games and now are in a great spot. They have two games against the Chicago bears the rest of the way, uh, beatable Cardinals and Falcons teams at us bank stadium. And the Packers are an imperfect team. And then of course, another battle with the Lions who absolutely blasted the Jacksonville Jaguars. So if I don't tell you anything else about the way it happened, the second half of this football game, because the Vikings completely outplayed the Titans in the first half, then you go, Hey, all good, right?

Move on. But if I start to dive into the details, it definitely becomes a lot more frustrating. The Vikings could not run the football today. They did allow Sam Darnold to get pressured at times, but he was not often in position to have a lot of play action chances. Once again, they didn't throw many screens to get people to football. There was a good one to Johnny Munt, but there wasn't a whole heck of a lot of that to Aaron Jones or to Cam Akers or the easy button stuff wasn't really there. It had to be really good throws down the field by Sam Darnold today. And he played, I thought an excellent overall football game, maybe his best game since early in the

season. Um, but he had to be everything. And that's not what you want is Sam Darnold to have to be the entire Vikings offense. As it felt like he was today, Jefferson, a handful of catches. Jordan Addison got more involved and then had cramps after that. Cramps also might have been got kind of destroyed a couple times in the game as well on a few plays, but Addison getting involved, the big touchdown pass early in the game. So Darnold's performance, you come out of it going like he was pretty good today. The sack at the end that maybe could have been called a fumble was a tough look for him, and there was some three and outs, but again, sort of fueled by the fact that they couldn't run the ball.

Aaron Jones has not looked the same in a couple of weeks. He was banged up last week with the rib injury, and then he comes back in today and immediately fumbles the ball on a pitch. And I think that's the downside of this game is that when it comes to a play-to-play basis, they completed passes, they pressured Levis, they stopped the Titans run. And overall, the Vikings had way, way, way more successful plays. And that's why it feels like last week against the Jaguars only not as tense, but they had a way more successful day on a play-to-play basis. And yet the miscues just added up. And it also felt like too, that this could have been a

lot scarier had the Titans not gotten flagged for everything. They completed a touchdown pass that was taken back because their right tackle doesn't know how to line himself up. And once again, boy, I just love illegal formation penalties. I know this one went for the Vikings, but my goodness. I mean, isn't that what every football fan was pining for this year? Ah, man, I hope they take away a lot of big plays because the right tackle was six inches back too far. The Vikings were on the wrong side of that last week.

They're on the right side of it this week. The penalty in the end zone where Jordan Addison is hit and can't make the catch early in the game. That's another one that was a little bit on the suspect side. I mean, it was a lowering the game. That's another one that was a little bit on the suspect side. I mean, it was a lowering the crown. It was a launching into Addison, but maybe it wasn't the hardest hit that I've ever seen. Or it definitely wasn't really to the head of Addison. That's one where the referees kind of have their choice. And another one where the Vikings get stopped on a third down, but Jefferson's being held. And the broadcast, I don't often get a chance to watch the broadcast,

and there were some times where I was scratching my head today because I believe it's Adam Archuleta was really ranting and raving about how it shouldn't have been a penalty, even though it was clearly a penalty. Still, they don't always call that. We know that they don't always call cornerbacks playing extremely physical with Justin Jefferson, and that might be another reason why it didn't feel like it was a very smooth ride today,

is that the Vikings needed these penalties in order to have the type of win that they were able to get. So where do you stand on this? Three wins, none of them pretty, all of them kind of gnarly and grindy, and yet eight and two, you couldn't have asked for anything better. And I don't even think we need to talk about it through the lens of the beginning of the year, because usually when this comes up of how they've been doing like, wow, you know, they've outperformed the expectations at the beginning of the season,

but I don't even think of it that way anymore. I think of just after they went to five and oh, we raised the bar. We raised the expectation. I think really even after four and oh, because that's where the schedule stopped getting so difficult. I think really even after 4-0, because that's where the schedule stopped getting so difficult. So after they went to 4-0, we raised the expectation and we start to look at it along the lines of, well, can you really compete in this conference?

The NFC is not what the AFC is. Can you really compete in this conference? And if you can, then you have to come out of the next, whatever number of games sitting pretty in the NFC. And so even though the first four or really first three and a half, because it was halfway through the Packers game that they started to get a little bit more stumbly as opposed to just dominating full games as they did for the first few weeks. But since the middle of the Packers game in week four, it has been a lot rockier of a ride than it was through those first three and a half games. Yet still after going four and O, if we go back, because there was the bye week in there. So that's where we usually draw the line. But I look at it as those first four games, uh, really, really the three after the giants game were the ones that

were concerning because they were the most difficult opponents, the San Francisco, the Houston and the at green Bay, those are three hard games. And so they come out for an L after that beat the jets, lose two, and then win three straight. That's still four out of the last six games that they were able to win after that hot start. And now you get set up for, you go to Chicago. That's a team that is not a gimme by any means, as they showed today. And the Packers had to survive on a blocked field goal. But it's also a team that's beatable for the Vikings.

And then they play them at home later on, and you're in a spot where this team could potentially go into the playoffs as the second best record in the entire NFC. And I mean, if you put yourself in that spot after 10 games, it's really hard to nitpick away at how you got there because the Titans are bad. The Jaguars are bad. The Colts are a better team than they were against the Vikings. As you saw from Anthony Richardson, who had a great game today, very competent franchise there in Indianapolis, but they beat the jets and a nice to see Anthony Richardson bounce back after the embarrassing benching and all that. But the Vikings avoided

Richardson. He would have made it more difficult on them than Joe Flacco did that night. So when it comes to the penalties today, the Jaguars not being able to score another touchdown when they could have won that game. And then Indianapolis playing their backup quarterback. A lot of good breaks have happened to the Vikings to win these last couple games. And in a lot of areas, they've been good enough to compete with anyone, which is completed a lot of passes, stayed on the field for a long time. Very successful day for Sam Darnold throwing the football. I thought he was pretty accurate today. I mean, there was one that was high to Jordan

Addison, but he didn't make big mistakes. He made a few really excellent plays in scrambling away. It's just the huge catastrophic mistakes that they had today that opened the door for Tennessee to come back. The drop by Jalen Naylor, the 98-yard touchdown where they didn't seem to get rotated fast enough on a blitz or maybe had no expectation whatsoever that Will Levis would ever throw it down the field on a 98-yard touchdown. And they allowed Tennessee to hang around in this game because of these big, giant mistakes that they made. And that even includes Aaron Jones fumbling at the, at the beginning, right? Like of the game, which is a very odd thing. I can't remember three other times the Vikings have ever fumbled on pitch plays.

And then they did that in Tennessee really controlled the line of scrimmage. But another thing that we need to talk about as well is the right guard situation. We have a new starting right guard, which would be Dalton Reisner, because Kevin O'Connell finally decided to pull that trigger. And while they didn't run well, it's hard to say without looking back at it. I don't know that they were running a lot behind Dalton Reisner anyway, because they're aware that he's not the best run blocker. But I thought the pass protection in the middle mostly gave a chance for Darnold.

And when you consider who's on the other side of that, the very nasty Jeffrey Simmons, it wasn't an upgrade. I felt like I was not seeing the right guard getting bowled over or getting beat quickly time and time again. So that does give Sam Darnold a better chance in the pocket, I think going forward and is the right move for Kevin O'Connell. So your reactions, guys, are you a little flustered after this one? Are you jacked after this one? What questions, thoughts, concerns on your mind? Dane Mizutani and I will grade the positions through the day once he in Tennessee gets back from talking to Kevin O'Connell in the locker room and we'll be able to hear from him what was said after this victory. I don't think they have anything to apologize for

when you get to eight and two. We have seen so many Vikings teams in past years melt down in one of these games and not win three straight when they should win three straight. Think about the 2020 team where we kind of made that same argument. It was a different situation, but it was, oh, well, they're going to play the Jaguars and the Panthers and the Bears, and they beat a couple of them, but then fell apart at the wrong time against Chicago, and they end up missing the playoffs that year. It's happened so many times through the years where we say, oh, well, this should be a victory. That should be a victory. And then they're not able to get it done, which makes it

a lot harder for me when they are eight and two to say, well, it wasn't a good enough win. Now I did agree with Andrew Kramer on the show on Friday, where we talked about style points and how they could really use them. And I thought that they were going there at the end of the first half, they've got the ball and it's 13 to three. And, and, and they could just put this Titans team away. If they score right there and make it 20 to three, the Titans are done. I mean, that team is not sharp at all. You saw from all the penalties that they committed, that they they're kind of a mess. Their coach is melting down on the sideline. They only get a field goal there. And then in the second half, it's three and out.

It's one first down and then punt a bunch of punts in the second half. And had they been running the football and winding out the clock and then punting away, it would have been a lot easier to deal with. Okay. They're not scoring. Just run the clock, run the clock, punt the ball away. It's okay. But they weren't really getting first downs and they weren't sticking the dagger in the team in this really bad team. And then you get a Trent Shurfield, play at the goal line Shurfield has really been a revelation for the special teams you get this great great play stops them at the one yard line it's almost a safety on the first play and then they decide to go full blitz and make a mistake and give up a 98 yard touchdown like that's kind of the story of the game was it was really over at that point i'm

sure the vikings had a 99.9 chance to win by the win probability when they're at the one yard line and it's third down and long and yet you allow them to just get a flicker of life which is kind of what's happened in each of these last three games flickers of life overall so the defense gives up one really terrible play the rest of it all other plays that were not that touchdown it's a phenomenal game by the defense there are no other touchdowns scored the entire game they stopped them on a couple of uh field goals and then they completely shut down Tony Pollard. Who's probably their second best player. Uh, Will Levis again, did a good job, but he, uh, was under pressure for most of the entire day and they hit him a couple of times, really hard. Jonathan Grenard

was in the backfield, Andrew Van Ginkle. What a tremendous game from Andrew Van Ginkle today. He was just too much for that team to handle. And that's why when you look at the final score, once again, for the third straight week, you look at the final score and go, what the, what? This should have been so much more than it actually was, which I could see as being frustrating, but I don't get the same sense today from you guys. And we'll get to some of your comments here shortly, but I don't get the same sense today from you guys. And we'll get to some of your comments here shortly. But I don't get the same sense of annoyance after this one as after Jacksonville, because

Jacksonville included the Darnold turnovers. And the bigger picture on this is you're usually not going to give up a 98 yard touchdown, right? You're usually not going to average two something yards per carry. That's a really good defensive line. That's the one strong thing that the Titans have. So you're usually not going to do that. And maybe Aaron Jones needs a week off here to be able to get to a hundred percent.

You can't really do it against the bears, I guess, but he needs to get a little more healthy because he just didn't have the same type of jolt that he had earlier in the season. And playing through a rib injury while you're carrying a football has to be pretty painful, I would guess. He had to come out of the game at one point. Cam Akers did a good job in replacing him, didn't get big yards per carry,

had that three-yard loss that was tough, but caught a touchdown, kind of grinded out some yardage and might be right now with Aaron Jones being banged up, might be kind of an equal running back. But the bigger picture is that the quarterback, who is going to be the most important piece to this puzzle, had a bounce back day against the defense that did have the capability to cause problems. And they did get after him at times and he made plays. There was even another pass or two that should have been not just the Jalen Naylor should be touchdown. His stat line should have been a lot better actually. I mean, because of the touchdown, but there was also

a Jordan Addison sliding throw that maybe Addison could have caught where he was rolling to his left and he throws it a little bit low and he comes across and slides and just can't quite bring it in. So I thought Darnold overall played as well as any other game that he's played this year. It wasn't the most lit up with highlight reel throws, but he finds Addison for the long touchdown. He doesn't turn the ball over. He sometimes made a play while he was scrambling, but also there was a few different moments in the game where I thought Darnold had the kind of don't do it thing where you could almost see his body start to say, Oh, I think I see some, Oh, don't do that. I was told not to do that after last week and to not give the ball away. He's going to be given in the stat sheet, a fumble

for the pitch. That's just how they score it. But that's obviously ridiculous. That was Aaron Jones. But other than that, to not turn the ball over all day and to complete a lot of passes hit some downfield throws play pretty confidently it was a good day for Sam Darnold and that's why you come out of this much more willing to say in my opinion hey some of that stuff's pretty random or pretty weird a 98 yard touchdown but heck like Darnold played much better and if that's how he's going to play going forward, a little safer, maybe learned his lesson. Maybe it ends up being a good thing for him that he threw those couple of interceptions last week to kind of reset how he's supposed to be playing football and know that they

can win without him doing crazy stuff if he just runs the offense, which I felt like was what happened today. He just ran the offense and he found the guys that were there and did an excellent job. If you come out of a game, you're eight and two, and the quarterback seems to have screwed his head back on straight, and the defense, outside of one horrible miscue, ends up giving up no other touchdowns the entire game. I think they had 11 first downs, 11 first downs in the whole game that Tennessee was able to get. They're pressuring the quarterback constantly. It it's, I don't think it's anywhere near as frustrating as last week. It was just

sort of, Hey guys, in the second half of this game, you're going to need to concentrate. You have to take this seriously. It's still an NFL team. And I just thought there was a lack of concentration that happened on a lot of different plays. Uh, Mel kill says, uh, where was Hawkinson today? You know, I think that this is going to work this way with the Vikings offense, which is some days it's going to be Hawkinson.

Some days it's going to be Addison. Some days it's going to be Hawkinson. Some days it's going to be Addison. Some days it's going to be Josh Oliver who was involved again. I would like to see Aaron Jones more mixed into the passing game. It's always going to be Justin Jefferson, who by the way has now gained the most yards through five years of any wide receiver in NFL history. I don't think we can ever talk enough about the greatness of Justin Jefferson and just another unreal milestone for him. In Minnesota, we take for

granted that they're always going to have an elite wide receiver no matter what, but that's history. Jerry Rice is on the list. Torrey Holt'stz on that list the best receivers ever on that list and justin jefferson passing them today but the way it's always going to work is jefferson is the main target and he's going to make his plays get his yards and then it's going to be somebody else but i don't think we know who the somebody else is going to be. It was Josh Oliver against Indianapolis. It was TJ Hawkinson against the Jags. And today it was Jordan Addison. And if that's the way that it goes, then that's fine. Today's passing game was absolutely good enough to win against better teams. And the Titans are not a laughingstock when it comes to that. They're not great, but they're not a laughingstock.

This type of passing game where you're working the ball to Addison, where you're not making big mistakes, where Jefferson's getting open, you hit on an explosive, but also control the ball underneath. It was good. It doesn't have to be Hawkinson all the time. I mean, unless he's on your fantasy team. And then of course you are not happy today because he was so big last week, but that's, that's the whole ethos of what this is supposed to be as a Vikings offense is you can get Jordan Addison back going. And I have felt like it was important for them to get Jordan Addison, one of these big games, it wasn't a 200 yard game or something, but the big touchdown catch, he had some other opportunities. He had someone put a WWE move on him on the sideline. So he got a little bit banged up,

but that's how you want this to go for Jordan Addison. You don't want him out there running routes for the love of the game over and over again. And that's where I feel like it gets a little sloppy with him and the concentration isn't the same, but you see just, I mean, that sideline catch that he almost made, if he could just get that second toe down, you see the talent that is there on a weekly basis. He is that good. They just need to make sure that he's involved and sort of forcing Sam Darnold to look his way time and time again, getting those two on the same page. If there was a big development from the passing game, it was probably that.

Wes says we didn't run the ball well because the Titans defense is top notch against the run. I mean, they've been beaten a couple of times this year running as I guess everyone is, but they had the personnel to beat this Vikings offensive line, and it just felt like there wasn't a lot of push there. And here's the reality. Cam Robinson coming in for Christian Derrissaw is a huge difference. It's a much bigger gap, Derrissaw to Robinson, who's done a phenomenal job, but it's a much bigger gap in the run than it is from

Ed Ingram to Dalton Reisner. In my opinion, Ingram graded out as I think the 50 something, if run blocking guard out of 60. I mean, this year he wasn't a dominating run blocker and Reisner won't be either, but the left tackle position was a great place to pitch to the outside, get running behind Christian Derrissaw. It's just not going to be the same with Cam Robinson and running the ball might require a little bit less of, we're just going to line up and pitch it, or we're just going to line up and hand it off up the middle. It might require a little more movement, a little more trickery, a little more eye candy from this offense, because they're not just going to line up and beat people. Might need a little more CJ Ham, a little bit more Josh Oliver. And to your point though, Tennessee deserves credit. That's how

they've built their team. Jeffrey Simmons, all of you wanted to trade a first round pick for him. So did I. He's a beast. We saw that again today. And then they drafted the biggest man in the draft, Tavondre Sweat, who helped the Vikings out also by lining up offside on that QB sneak. But you see how big that guy is. So I'm not shocked that they were able to slow down the Vikings run game, but it is something to have a little bit of concern about with just the last, I mean, last week Jones averages five yards a carry, but it is something to have a little bit of concern about with just the last, I mean, last week Jones averages five yards of carry, but gets banged up. And that's where I think the worry is how healthy is Aaron Jones going to be down the stretch? Because if you'll go back to

2022 where Delvin cook through the first half of the season was averaging five yards a carry, but then age and injury started to come for him, and it wasn't the same down the stretch, and it really hurt the offense. So that is something that they have to keep an eye on and maybe play Cam Akers more over the next couple of weeks. Mike says, I think I was hoping for more of dominant wins against these opponents. That is maybe just the league. Now we will see if they can ratchet up and play better against better competition. The Bears played well today. I saw the Bears play well today against the Packers and barely lose.

It also is probably going to be a nightmare for Caleb Williams to go against the Vikings defense. There should be some confidence there. And Kevin O'Connell has not really had good days against Matt Eberflus' defenses. So that's going to be something to watch for sure. Winning ugly, it's kind of like this. Winning ugly against bad teams where it's this week and against Indianapolis, it was never really a doubt. Jacksonville was a little bit, but they outplayed them by more. It's acceptable. It's not ideal. That's how I would put it is, of course, you get to eight and two and you're in a position to go down the stretch then and be in the playoff race

with even average play the rest of the way while you're in great shape. And then you might get a chance based on the NFC to go to Arizona or go to Atlanta for a first round playoff game where you're going in as the better team with the better record. I mean, of course you would all take that as a final result. But I said in week one, after they beat the giants that I view destructions of bad teams as being similar to good wins over good teams. These were not destructions that they outplayed all three teams, but they just had a lot of boneheaded stuff that you wouldn't expect from a team with this much experience, especially the 98 yard touchdown. I mean, you have have to you have to at least have a sense for this team is two and seven and they can't just punt here they're gonna have to take a shot

and to allow a receiver to get behind you in that circumstance is totally unacceptable and so is dropping a touchdown I know it happens but those are the things that have cropped up over the last few games where it's just like the Darnold interceptions last week. We just keep going back and back and we go, Hey, I mean, what the heck? Like you, you should, I mean, you should be winning this game by so much more. And right. And that's how it felt today with just other players. Like what the heck you should be winning by so much more. But I do think it's progress that Darnold got it back together. And he looked like a confident starting quarterback.

And he won the game. I mean, they had to put the offense on his shoulders to win the game. And he was able to move the football well enough to do it. And the defense naturally allowing almost nothing. But you're also asking the defense to allowing almost nothing. But you're also asking the defense to allow almost nothing these last three weeks. It's both been in this where you go back and forth. It's been very impressive, but the quarterbacks that they faced are also very bad. And I don't know if the theory applies that beating a bad quarterback is the same as playing an average game and surviving against

a good quarterback, or if it's as impressive because the bad quarterbacks are so bad as we've seen for the last three weeks. I mean, Flacco, Mac Jones, Will Levis, you couldn't, it's hard to get three worst quarterbacks in the league. And Levis had some moments today. And then Caleb Williams, you've got next week, but that's not Kyler Murray. It's not Kirk. It's not, you know, Jordan Love. It's not Jared Goff. Like those quarterbacks are going to offer a more difficult challenge. Those teams are coached better.

Arizona's coached well. Atlanta's coached well. Those teams aren't just going to give it to you the way that these last three teams did. So going down the stretch, this is where they will have to play better than they did these last three games to come away with that four and three record or even better than that. I mean, if they go, if they go five and two, I mean, then we're talking about a 13 win season, but you're not the way that they've played these last three games with the number of mistakes that they've made and the struggles of the run game today have not been indicative of a team that can just go five and two the rest of the way.

It looks more like a three and four type of team, even if they were able to get away with the wins because of who they're going to play does help though. And this is, listen to me, argue with myself. It's on the road though. These last two games on the road and it's never easy on the road. You have four games in December at us bank stadium. I'll see all there. So yeah, that's it. I mean, you can't, you can't be unhappy with the position that they're in, but you also have to be nervous, I think. Nervous about the way the secondary played at times today. I mean, they gave up another long touchdown,

but their right tackle lined up offside or whatever, too far back in the slot, as the color analyst Adam Archuleta said. But I mean, the secondary had its problems today and had a couple of passes. They must've had 75 yards taken away from them because their right tackle doesn't know how to line up so that it was worse than it looked on paper. Uh, and that, and considering the amount of pressure that Levis was under, that's what makes you think, all right, when you play Murray,

when you play Kirk, when you play love, when you play golf again, are these issues that were going on against Detroit or the Rams, are they going to pop up again? That's probably what exists in the back of a lot of people's minds. And now including mine, I mean, when they were up 16 to three and they get the ball coming out of half, I'm thinking maybe I could take a nap before post game. I mean, right? Like that would be great. If in the fourth quarter, I'm just flipping over to the bears game or something for a while. And then I could come do the post game. But the fact that you had to watch to the very end of this one sort of showed some of the weaknesses and the lack of sharp play that they've had the last few weeks. Jason says this season

kind of reminds me of 2017. We didn't win pretty that season either, but just kept winning. That is true. I'm trying to think about some of the games there that they were able to win. I mean, that's right. I think we did walk out of a lot of those games, even against bad teams like the Ravens, where it was a bit of a rough ride that season. And you said, well, they found a way to win. And then eventually when they got to the playoffs, it was kind of about matchup and it was close with the Saints that year. And that's the thing too. It's not like, I mean, when the Vikings have played good teams, it's not like they've played badly in 2019, which I think this season is a little more like because the 17 defense was

the best in the league. This defense is the best in the league statistically, but I'm not sure it's as strong. Uh, that one had Xavier Rhodes and that one had Harrison Smith in its prime. So it's a little bit different from that perspective, a little, a little less failable until Philadelphia when it all started to come apart. But they have a chance to win as many games. So I can't, I can't argue with you there. But in 2019, that was where they lost against all the good teams and beat all the bad teams and had an easy schedule.

And so then the whole season we were saying, well, that was Detroit with David Blau starting or whatever. Who cares? It's a little bit like that this year. I think only it's the darn old thing has added more intrigue, but it's a good, it's a good question of how strong are they when they play good teams? Cause they did beat some of them. Then in hindsight maybe

the texans win or the 49ers win isn't quite as good as it looked at the time or even the packers the way that they came back in the second half i mean i think that we're starting to settle in to this is a very good team that doesn't fall apart against garbage teams like the AFC South, but is going to have to play better than this if they're going to beat the good team, which is the Lions. And then when they play anybody else, it's a coin flip. I mean, are they wildly better than Arizona? Probably not. Are they wildly better than Atlanta?

Probably not. But I think they're a little bit better after this. It's a hard thing to really pinpoint because so much went well today. They were all over Will Levis, the defensive line. They didn't allow a bit of running to the Titans again, and that's three straight weeks where the opposing team, one of their best players is in the backfield. The Vikings just said no.

They have completely shut out the opposing team, one of their best players is in the backfield. The Vicky just said, no, they have completely shut out the running game, which was a problem against the lions and the Rams. The lions and the Rams also have good offense, or at least the lions have a good offensive line. Melkill says comfortable win, excellent defensive performance, save for some explosives and Darnold look decent. Yeah. I think, I mean, I think that's why Darnold, the way he looked is why we don't have in the comment section today, the frustration and anger of what we had last week, because last week against the Jaguars, everyone was just envisioning this interception in the playoffs that Darnold's going to throw. And today he seemed to adjust his mentality that he was not throwing into traffic. Maybe a couple of passes all day that went into traffic, but there wasn't risks. There wasn't stupid throws. He got back to the way he played. I would compare this one to the game against the

giants. I didn't walk away wowed, but I walked away saying, well, good job, Sam Darnold. Good job. Like you, you, you made the throws that were there. You got an explosive player too. And, and that's it. Uh, Hanky Panky says, can you break down how the hit on Addison on the sideline was not a defenseless receiver penalty, please asking me to break down penalties is tricky business because I don't know that the league understands their own rules. So I always hesitate a little bit on things like this, but what I thought was questionable and, and you can't really be too upset about any penalties today because the penalties helped the Vikings way more than they did the Titans way more. In fact, I'm sure

the Titans coach is going insane with some of the penalties that were called. So you can't be too upset about that. So Addison goes up to get the ball and gets his hands on it, and then he's hit. But where I thought it might be unnecessary roughness, or like you're saying, defenseless receiver would have been how he was body slammed afterward.

But I didn't really have a problem with that. He was hit low. I think that's what you're supposed to do. I mean, we see that with guys getting hurt because they can't hit them high. So he kind of hit him on the back end. I didn't think that that was excessive. But all, I mean, all the Titans penalties were penalties

as much as Brian Callahan was going crazy. There wasn't any of them that I thought weren't penalties. I'm just more amazed that they committed them and gave the Vikings a lot of extra chances today, which could be another reason to be a little bit, a little bit frustrated. A horse feather says the chiefs are undefeated and their wins have not been blowing away opponents, but they're still winning. So I don't understand the complaint about the Vikings. I think I do. I do understand the complaint, which was today was an opportunity after the way the first half went to just wash away last week. Okay. We all had a pretty bad feeling in our mouths or taste in our mouths after watching the jaguars game i had to fly there for it uh so you know just yeah right so go just kill the

titans just this team is bad their franchise is down bad that they they can't block they can't run a play without a penalty. Their coach seems kind of clueless. Their punt returns, no good, like all these things, you know, just, just destroy them if you're really good and they outplayed them, but they did not destroy them. And that's where you could go. I mean, if you can't blow out the bad teams, are you going to be able to beat the good teams? And they haven't shown that in a while since they lost to the two good teams that they played most recently.

So I do understand that. And the chiefs example, yes, you could say that, but we could also look back to the Eagles of last year where they were what, 10 and O and it was all one score close games close wins 2022 i can't really talk out of both sides of my mouth because i spent all 2022 saying oh guys i don't know you know i don't know all these one score win and this wasn't a one score win but you know what i'm saying this this isn't like that exactly because the vikings I believe after today are plus 74, which puts them on track from a perspective of point differential that all the teams that go to the Superbowl, which is now how I'm looking at the Vikings through that lens of what would it take?

How could they get there? Who they have to play all that stuff. When I, when I'm looking at it, I'm always looking at that point differential because it's been such a clear marker for teams that are truly worthy of going deep in the playoffs. Out of the last 20 teams that reached the Super Bowl, 16 of them were at least plus 100. And I think 10 of them were at least plus 140. So this is like what you're seeing from the Lions. That's a team that meets all the thresholds where, when they play the Jaguars, they score 50 and they just run away from them

and they don't have to talk about it. They can laugh their way to the bank. The lions also absolutely annihilated this same Titans team to the point where Jared golf had to throw for like 60 yards. They beat them by so much and the Vikings made it into a struggle. So, so that's where, when you see the lions do that and you're not quite doing the same thing, you go, yards they beat them by so much and the Vikings made it into a struggle so so that's where when you see the Lions do that and you're not quite doing the same thing you go is it is it of that caliber I don't know if games against the Jaguars and Titans tell us if it's of that caliber but it certainly doesn't convince you of it when you win by 10 in a game that they handed you some of the points they they handed the Vikings who just cannot run the football at the goal line.

And then KOC calls for a fade. What? A fade? I mean, the worst play in football statistically at the goal line. They can't slam the ball in. Jones is struggling. There's big mistakes. You know, things like that. You go, well, if you can't run

if you get to the playoffs that means it's all on darnell that's pretty hard right and if your secondary gives up big plays like that even if they do get sacks and cause negative plays is that going to work again against the lions against the packers against Arizona against Atlanta. There's more to be answered here. As we continue to go forward that they didn't answer in these three games. If they had just crushed these teams, you'd feel a little more confident about it. It's really like a confidence meter. I don't think anyone thinks this team isn't good.

It's just, where are you on a confidence scale that they can really compete when it gets to the playoffs or down this stretch where they're going to play some pretty tough teams? Seattle's mixed in there as well. Those are good. They've got quarterbacks who, if you play like today are going to light you up because they were not doing a great job in coverage at times. I think that's, that's what people are thinking about as far as the critique. Aaron says, this game did nothing to change anything about this team. They're a good team. They will be a tough out for any team in the playoffs. Defense has flaws.

Offense has flaws as far as Darnold takes us. Right. I mean, that is a key point, though, about today is if you were doing what are the biggest takeaways just of the entire game? Number one is that Sam Darnold bounced back really well. And his stat line is not going to tell the truth because he should have had, I don't know how far they were away, a 40 yard touchdown pass that he dropped a beautiful dime. And he just, he was in control. They didn't have any procedural penalties. They may have had to call one time out, I think. But aside from that, he was in control. He threw the football well, when the pocket broke down, he didn't do anything stupid, but he did make a

couple of really good plays. He escaped out and found, I forget who it was, along the sideline. He converted the touchdown on the play action to Cam Akers. And there were two plays where they were kind of blown up by the Titans right away. And he just threw the ball out of bounds, which is exactly what you should be doing. If you're Sam Darnold is just, Hey, I'm managing here. I'm not throwing the ball away. That was something that I was impressed by today. And Darnold, they deserve 30 points on the

board. Darnold deserve three touchdowns on the board, but one just hits Jalen Naylor right in the hands and can't bring it in. I don't know. There's nothing he could have done better there. But when Dane Mizutani joins from Tennessee, I'm sure that we're going to give high grades to Sam Darnold. Rascal lover says thing I noticed was that the cornerbacks and safeties of the Titans were a lot more physical and tackled better than the Vikings. Yeah. I mean, I don't, I don't know what they do. Just the Vikings in general is a lot of times they send these blitzes, they drop these guys back into zones. So then you're asking them to come up and tackle. I don't know if it was physical as much. It was just, they weren't making the play at all. Uh, there was a one throw in the second half. It was

a short pass to the sideline that should have been a six yard gain. And it turned into 30 because two guys just didn't attack the runner. and there were yards after catch that were out there for the titans and there there were opportunities for the titans to uh move the football probably better than they did if they hadn't had a few key penalties well we've got uh dane mizzitani coming in tennessee continue with uh your comments i'll try to get back to them as well dane how you can see the the clearly the the blue skies of nashville it looks uh great are you in a closet you're right they have they have closets in the press box here so i'm using it um hopefully i sound good hopefully i'm coming in clear but here I am for live from Nissan Stadium

okay yeah well it looks fine uh you do look a little bit like a hostage but I think we're good so I am curious to find out because I have spent the first uh 47 minutes talking about the back and forth that I am I'm gonna need to bring memes into the show so I can have that. The lady who tries kombucha and goes, because that was kind of me today. Sam Darnold played really, really well. The defense overall plays really,

really well. And then they just have these humongous mistakes that kept Tennessee somewhat in the game. So what was the sense from Kevin O'Connell and the locker room of their biggest takeaway from today? I really think the sense of everyone in the locker room, and I don't know if fans are going to love to hear this, is it's hard to win in the NFL, and it's really hard to blow teams out.

And that might fall on deaf ears from the fan base today, because like, if you don't give up a hundred yard touchdown, the defense had an incredible day. And if you can just punch one of those into the end zone, like this, this should have been a blowout. So I get why I'm sure the comment section is saying like,

Hey, you know, like why, why can't this team put them away or why can't they you know but keep their foot on the gas no and i think in some ways that's like merited but i think everyone after the game basically had the same opinion is like look we'll take it we're eight and two and i think what kevin o'connell said makes the most sense is that like they're eight and two and they haven't really played their best football

in like two months so while some people would say that's a bad sign because it shows regression from early on on the opposite side of the coin you could say it's a good sign like they're eight and two and and there is a lot more that they can get to. So that was the general tone of the locker room post game, like not super satisfied with the way it went down, but certainly not apologizing for a win. Oh, and I don't think that they have to actually, the chat has been very chill about this win today, I think, because, well, number one,

I think we all understand that Tennessee had the defensive line that could give the Vikings problems. And they did at times, especially with the run game. But it's just a very different feeling when you come out of a game knowing that the quarterback got it together and played really well. When you see the quarterback last week throw three interceptions and all other active players had a great day. Well, that makes you feel pretty bad. But in this case, I think that Darnold was, if we were just naming all players on the field, he was one of the best players on the field today,

did not turn the ball over, was safe with the ball, and deserved, and it's a good point here that Malkiel makes, which is if Naylor makes the catch, it's maybe 30 to 13. And yeah, I guess it would have been if he's, if he goes into the end zone. I mean, you can't deny that, that this was that close to being a blowout at the same time over in Tennessee and their post game show. I'm sure they're saying, Hey, if we didn't get called for all those penalties, maybe Will Levis has another touchdown.

And I think that's where it is reasonable to have some concern is the secondary, the tackling. It wasn't just the 98 yard touchdown. It's also the touchdown that got pulled back off the board. A couple of the explosive plays. Levis found receivers today, and that's been still an Achilles heel of this defense when they play anybody with good talent at the receiver position. Yeah. And, and I think that's a great point about the touchdown

that got taken off the board. Like then it is a dog fight toward the end. Um, and just, there were miscues throughout the secondary that, that I think need to be improved moving forward. And if you're looking at this game and really trying to microanalyze like where things went wrong, where it could have potentially gone completely awry and snowballed out of control, it does exist in that secondary. Like the play and the angle that Josh Metellus took on that ball and that 98 year touchdown, like that's just basic.

And I know he would be the first to say that just has to get cleaned up. And Calvin Ridley getting loose up the middle of the field, that just has to get cleaned up. You can't rely on the good teams moving forward. Shoot, you can't even rely on Chicago moving forward to take points off the board because they don't know how to line up at the line of scrimmage. The Titans did the Vikings a ton of favors today um but i yeah like that goes back to the the comment

that you put on the board like if nailer catches that ball or i would argue if darnell leads nailer into the end zone because nailer did have to slow down a little bit there it's 30 to 13 and and we're not even really talking about that but there are little cracks still in this foundation. And I think it's something that all of the people in that locker room, the head coach at the top of that list is very, very aware of. So it's something that they can, they can actually look to and say, okay, we went three and O on our tour through the AFC South like we were supposed to. Here's all the things we need to improve on moving forward.

So it's not a bad place to be in, 8-2. You're heading into Chicago next week, get back in the NFC North. Now we really get to kind of see how good this team is, I think over the next month or so, I think this three week stretch, what it proved was they are more like the team that started five and O and not the team that lost two games in five days. So they're in a good spot, but I think, yeah,

the defense as good as they were, there are still things that definitely need to be cleaned up. It's also hard not to look at what the Detroit Lions did today, which, I mean, the funny thing is that Detroit probably outplayed them by close to what the Vikings did and then just scored all the touchdowns instead of the field goals. But still, they just ran the Titans and the Jaguars out of the building. And so when you look at the Vikings,

you almost have to compare them more to the Packers who keep playing close games, Atlanta, Arizona, Philadelphia still plays a lot of close games as well, even though they've been winning recently. I think that those are the teams you're more comparing them to because one team is just running away with the division. And when they play somebody bad, they crush them. And even when they throw five picks, they still find a way to win. So when you're looking at it that way, which anything can happen in the playoffs, but that's hard not to be a part of the focus. Joel says eight and two is an amazing record. Anyone complaining about it after a win being on the road for two consecutive weeks is being dramatic. Well, I think there's probably a difference between being dramatic, which I felt some

people may have been a little last week, versus trying to project what you really have here, which is the goal. Everyone knows eight and two is a great football team. No matter who you look at across the league, no one's eight and two. That is just garbage. It's, it's more of a, how is this going to play out and what would have to change and what can change? Is it possible to change who you have in the secondary? Once the trade deadline went away, you know, that you're not going to have a lot of speed in the secondary.

And I actually did think that that costs them today at times, not having the type of speed. And once Levis figured out some of the blitzes or Brian Callahan figured them out, they were able to hit a number of big explosive plays against this defense that we did not see with the Jaguars. We did not see what the Colts doing to them. Yeah. I think the point you made about the lions running away, like that's Harrison Smith even made that point today. Like when we talked to all these people in the locker room about like, OK, well, how hard is it to win in the league or what's your opinion on winning ugly?

And Harrison Smith basically said, yeah, nobody blows teams out every week except the Lions. I guess I said he said I saw that score again today. So like, yeah, I think the Vikings are probably more like the team is in the conglomerate or that like mishmash in the middle of the NFC, which is what we've been saying all along, right? Like there's one team that's the class of the NFC. That's the Detroit Lions. And how do we project the Vikings against the Lions moving forward? I don't know. If the Lions keep playing like this, they're definitely going to go to the Super Bowl.

I think there's no questions asked. But anything can happen in the playoffs. And if we're projecting how the Vikings are going to look against, say, the Packers, who had to block a field goal at the end of the game to beat the Bears. Or the Eagles, to your point, that they play close games every single week. If we're projecting how they're going to look against those teams, I think it's a little bit different conversation. I think if we're judging them against the Lions, it's always going to be to be well their secondary is not good enough or their defensive line is not going to be good enough to hold up against the lions offensive

line or their offensive line is not going to be good enough to hold up against the lions defensive line like and i get it like that's who you have to compare them to because if they want to go to the super bowl like you're going to presumably have to beat detroit um but besides them they just kind of exist in in that weird middle or not even middle like the weird like second tier um that i think is what we've been trying to remind people of over the last month as they've been kind of living and dying with this roller coaster so i yeah i don't know like we see how, how things continue moving forward. I think the bears in theory offer more of a test or more of like a case study to how good this team can be. Um, but we asked Kevin O'Connell, like, how good do you think you can be as a football

team? Um, and he continued to kind of just ride that, you know, you know, cruise control area, not too high, not too low. He said, I remember when nobody thought we were going to be that good. So I'm not going to go down the road of how good we can be. So I think that's probably how they're going to continue to look at it. But I think if everything works in concert, like if they can have a game where it all comes together, they can be really good, but maybe the fact that they haven't since early on is more emblematic of the team. They are like, maybe it isn't at one point, it's all going to click. Maybe at some point we should just accept that there are going to be weaknesses week in week out, but yeah, I'm excited to find out over the next month or so,

like how good they actually, we think how good they actually can be moving forward. Yeah. And I think it'll be much more telling. Plus they have just not played a lot of games at us bank stadium this year. And that's going to happen. It's really backloaded. They played against San Francisco and Houston right off the bat. And then it feels like they have just barely been at home the whole rest of their schedule. So to be eight and two at this point, you could also make that argument as well, that they have been on the road a lot because you had that game taken away against the jets. So then they had to go all the way to London and now they're still, you know, then to LA after just after playing the Detroit lions, it gets been travel wise.

It's been a little bit of a grind here, but I think Kevin O'Connell is right to not try to answer that question, but we all know they've put themselves in a position and this is how I'm looking at it. Be above average the rest of the way. And you walk into the playoffs with 12 wins, have a point differential of plus a hundred at least. Cause that's the threshold to be a contender. And what I'm going to say at that point is what an incredible football season

from this team, what we see now, now they've gotten up. It's like they had to climb up a certain Hill. And even though that Hill was pretty smooth, there were a couple of landmines in there and they spotted the landmines and landmines where the Colts, then the Jaguars, then the Titans, and they jumped over them just enough to get up to that horizon. So now you look over it and you can see a great season right there. It's right there in front of you. And the teams that they're going to play are also not perfect. Seattle is not perfect. The Falcons are not perfect. Arizona, they've all lost bad games this year and they've all won good games this year, which is

kind of like the Vikings. Although the Vikings losses are by a combined 10, no 12 points, uh, overall, and they did play close with the lions. So this is where we, we oscillate back and forth, uh, on the, uh, the general feeling here. Let's, let's take a minute to talk about Will Levis because, um, Vikings fan anonymous says, why did Levis suddenly look competent today of all the games he plays well in this one? He actually did play well last week against the Chargers defense and took a lot of sacks, but seemed to be coming along. Their offensive line is horrid. Their coach probably isn't that good.

Their receivers are not all that good outside of Kelvin Ridley it's something we will think about maybe a little bit along the way if Will Levis turns a corner anywhere but I looked at today thinking you know if Will Levis had been drafted by the Vikings he'd probably be pretty good I mean he he can play. I don't think that he's just entirely awful like Mac Jones was last week. He ran a couple of times pretty well. He threw some bullets. He took some risks downfield.

Is he Jordan Love-ish if he's playing for the Packers or the Vikings? Maybe that's going a tad too far, but that sort of wild man type of play, but he really surprises you with some great throws sometimes I just think that he had a horrible situation around him today and Brian Flores for the most part took advantage of it yeah I there were a few like the thing that Will Levis said is always going to bother me watching him especially me watching him if I had to watch him every week and why I think it

would bother people like Kevin O'Connell is like he just can't hit the layups with consistency like there were still plays today I think of one it was the the third down late in the game I think it was either the late third or early fourth quarter or he chucked the ball into like it nearly landed in the first row of the seats outside of the back of the end zone he misses a wide open crosser over the middle um and and you can we'll watch the all 22 back but i saw it happen in real time like at the stadium like harrison smith fails on that route when will levis throws it all the way to Texas. But I just don't think he always sees it. And I think that's what's always going to be his Achilles heel, is that he doesn't always hit those layups.

And I think to be a really good quarterback in the league, you have to consistently hit those. No one's ever going to question Will Levis' arm strength. The ball he threw to Calvin Ridley that did not count was incredible. I mean, Patrick Jones running right into his face. Will Levis, not even a real arm platform to throw it, and he flicks his wrist and it goes 65 yards downfield, dropped into a bucket.

So the arm talent's always there, and I think there are going to be times like this week, like last week where you see it and you're like, God, I think he can be really good. Maybe Jordan loves not a bad comp. Like he'll, I don't know if he'll ever get a long enough leash or a long enough run. I think it's probably done for him after this year, like to ever try and actualize that full potential. And Jordan Love's really good. So maybe that's probably a touch too far. But the talent's there.

And I think we can see that. We saw it today. But so is the inconsistency. And I think we saw that today, too. So that is going to be the thing that I think is maddening for people. And I guess I would be interested to like talk to Titans fans. Like if there was a Titans chat, right. Running right along the right, because the amount of Will Levis,

you suck. I heard from the fan base, like we're in the press box and we can see the, like it's an older stadium. So the press box is lower to the ground. So you're basically in like the lower bowl and people were just giving it to this guy. So I think he might've already lost this fan base too, regardless of like people who don't get to see him every week.

What we might think, I thought he looked pretty good today. You know, he's also played only really well the last couple of games. And he might just be of the Daniel Jones ilk that he's good enough to play in the NFL and can have some moments. And maybe if he had a great team around him or everything go right for him, he could make a playoff. But as you mentioned, the accuracy, the consistency, I think he would have been a very frustrating player if KOC had gotten his hands on him, which I also think Jordan Love is for the Packers at times as well. But it was just interesting because the Vikings passed on him and we're always going to be thinking about the guys that they decided that we don't want to build our franchise

around these guys. So let's get to the positions and the grades that allows us to really talk about some guys and some more plays and grade the coaching as well. But I want to get to a couple of things real quick because this show is big enough to have sponsors, which makes me very happy. And one of them is future fans. So if you've ever tried to explain football to a little kid, you know that it can be pretty difficult, especially if you were trying to explain the rules the last couple of weeks. And Daddy, why are all these flags happening? Well, son, the NFL loves illegal procedure now for some reason.

Anyway, sorry, don't mean to get on a tangent because Future Fans is great. Let me explain what it is. They give you a football playbook that explains the game and has a bunch of different activities that you play along with it. And you go through a story. It's great to play along with your kid. I have a friend whose son is seven years old. He's just getting into flag football, gave him the box. And those two have just had a ball with it, especially game watch bingo. And they checked off a lot of boxes today for sure. So make sure you check it out for the kid in your life grandchild niece nephew 49.99 at futurefans.com the code purple will get you 10 off there for the holiday season

futurefans.com unlock a lifetime of memories with a kid in your life starting now also underdog fantasy uh is a supporter of this show and the higher and lower we had lower for will levis going into this game so we've watched that one but the higher on sam darnold 239.5 he just barely got over it because underdog is good at what they do so if you want to play along with our pickums that we do every week on the show underdog fantasy app is the easiest place to play fantasy sports you can sign up with the code purple to get your special pick first time deposit offer up to a thousand dollars in bonus cash must be 18 or older terms apply concerned with your play call 1-800-GAMBLER or ncpgambling.org okay the greats uh quarterback how would you grade

the quarterback's performance on this day dane Dane Mizutani? A minus. I feel good about it. I don't know. There seemed to be some discourse about, was it a bad pitch? It was behind him. I think Aaron Jones has to catch that pitch, personally. While Darnold will get the fumble and the pitch could have been better like for him to start his day off with a turnover and you after seeing what he did last week watching him turn the ball over or be a part of a turnover on the first possession of the game I thought like uh-oh this could be bad and all he did was respond. The next drive throws that 47-yard touchdown, Jordan Addison, and then kind of doubles up the next drive. It's a touchdown aided by, you know,

pass interference or unnecessary roughness in the end zone that maybe wasn't. But either way, like to turn the ball over early and then to come back immediately and punch the ball in the end zone twice. The only reason I would go minus is because it was the kind of similar script of like, it stalled out in the third quarter and maybe it's unfair for me to go minus because if Jalen Naylor catches that ball, then it's a blowout.

But like, I still think he could have led him more to toward like the post of the end zone like he's the fastest guy on the field no one's catching him just make sure he doesn't run out of the back of the end zone so I'm kind of like waffling but I think overall he played really really well and I think it was something that is to that you could feel good about something you can build on and I think if like you were a fan who was kind of spiraling over the last two weeks, like today should have given you some confidence that yes, it can still look good because he just finished 20 of 32, 246 and two touchdowns rushed for some showed some,

some wiggle to move in and out of the pocket. Just overall, I thought it was a really good day for him. I would go a B plus sort of similar to you along the same lines, major, major bonus points for not turning the ball over. He will be charged with a fumble. That was not his fumble. They showed it on TV and multiple angles. And I just didn't think that there was anything weird about that pitch to Aaron Jones. He made a couple of plays on the move that were just flat out excellent where he found receivers and one of them Jordan Addison wasn't able to bring in, but it would have been a really good play and certainly should have deserved a little bit more on the stat sheet. If Naylor brings it in at the same time, that first drive, they get away with a fade route to the end zone. That didn't work a throw into traffic where he had a Hockinson open under the middle,

but threw it to Addison to get him demolished in the face or in the chest or whatever it was and got away with it because of the penalty. The refs don't always call that as a flag and then was able to punch it in after that on the sneak. But if Sam Darnold plays exactly that same football the rest of the season, they're winning a lot of games. And so way above average. The running game in the backfield, put it all together, sort of combine it with the blocking,

the running game in general, is that an F? I mean, it was just a non-factor. They kept trying it and I give KOC credit for not going away from it. It just never got off the ground. Yeah. They ran 33 times. Eight of those go to Darnold.

So what is that math? 25 rushes for your running backs. Aaron Jones averaged 2.6 yards of carry. Cam Akers averaged 2.5 yards of carry. So a lot of it was because there was no room going up against Jeffrey Simmons and Tavondre Sweat like everyone welcomed Dalton Reisner into the lineup I do think Ed Ingram is probably better at run blocking and I'm not sure if Ed Ingram being in there would have increased those numbers because I think those are two monsters in the middle.

So the, the blocking was a problem. The running was a problem. They couldn't run outside. They couldn't run inside. The only thing that would stop me from giving the running game an F is that like they, at least they stuck with it.

And I think they did need to stick with it. If we would have walked away from this game and Aaron Jones would have had nine carries and Cam Akers would have had three, I think there's a chance you throw yourself into a loss. I think you push the ball downfield too much or you leave too much time on the clock. I still think you needed the running game to exist and you needed to not go away from it completely.

But overall, it was just not a banner day and it's it's kind of a weird feeling to walk out of a stadium and look at Aaron Jones the stat line say he only averaged two and a half yards of carry because you're not used to that I think part of that was on him but I think most of it was on the blocking in front it just it wasn't it wasn't good today and sometimes you have to tip your cap to the other team but this has been a recurring issue anytime they play good defensive tackles a good nose or you know the running game looks similar to this so Jeffrey Simmons is very very good player Tavondra Sweat very very good player in the making but still those two guys alone your

running game should not look like that and it did today and that's concerning so i don't know d minus f whatever you want it was bad yeah d minus is probably the best i could do there i think that this is where they're going to just miss darisaw so much because i was trying to keep an eye on dalton reisner after there had been a parade uh that was thrown for Ed Ingram being benched. And look, Kevin O'Connell did the right thing. Okay. There's no question about it. They've got what 40 starts and he's still ranked among the worst by PFF, which when it comes to linemen is probably the most accurate thing you're going to get there. And the pressures there, he was still

fifth worst in pressures this season. And I thought he had a horrendous game against the Jaguars. So it was very much deserved. It's the right move. And the middle pressure was coming off of Bradbury, but it was not coming off of the right guard for the first time in maybe 10 years. So I was like, okay, all right, well, that's fine. But if you can't really run behind the right guard and then Cam Robinson is so much worse at run blocking than Christian Derrissaw, are you just running behind Blake Brandel every play? I mean, they really, I think are going to need to use some big personnel in there, but

that's, it's just a mismatch. And that was the biggest thing that they couldn't really hit one of those outside runs or something like that, that they needed to break through. It just didn't happen for them today. And then as we grade the offensive line, I would probably have to split it into two because the run blocking gets a D or an F and then, uh, the pass blocking I thought was fine. Oh, actually, let me ask you one more question about the run game. Aaron Jones. Do you think that he's just really banged up or was that entirely the blocking wasn't good? I think more of the blocking wasn't good. Like he took a nasty lick and popped right back up today.

And so I think he knows his body well enough. And I think that the Vikings in, in the past two years or over the past two years have shown if there's any risk of potential making something worse, they're not going to put him out there. So like, I don't know if I am willing to go that far and say like his rib or chest or whatever we want to call it, injury that limited in practice this week was the reason. I think it was just the blocking and just maybe not a good day for him. Pass protection, you want to give him like a B? injury that limited in practice this week was the reason I think it was just a blocking and just maybe not a good day for him. Pass protection. You want to give him like a B? Yeah, I thought it was fine. I mean, I think Darnold, this is where like, I don't need to bring up Kirk Cousins, but I will, I guess here, like, this is where like, I think your quarterback

plays a role in pressures is because there were times today where I think the offensive line fell short in pass protection and Sam Darnold was able to make it work so maybe it looks worse he took two sacks but if he doesn't wiggle out on I can think of three off the top of my head he wiggles around finds Trent Shurfield he w wiggles around, finds Justin Jefferson, 31 yards up the left side. And then maybe the biggest one, he wiggles around, gains six yards, they needed seven, rushes to the line on fourth down, draws it off sides. Those three plays in and of themselves, if they go down to sacks, maybe we're feeling worse about this pass protection. So I think part of it falls on Darnall but I did think

overall like you could feel like Dalton Reisner can anchor in pass protection and that has always been his biggest strength I mean he does not get immediately bull rushed and run over like I would venture to guess we would have seen at least a couple of times with that Ingram today going up against Jeffrey Simmons so that matters even if you're, like even if Dalton Reiser gets beat, he doesn't get beat immediately, which is, was like a calling card for Ed Ingram. So B B's fine. Yeah. I didn't think it was like their best day, but I did think they allowed Darnold to drop back 32 times and, and have some success. We always struggle when it comes to whether we call it the defensive line or the front seven or the whatever.

I want to make sure it includes Andrew Van Ginkle and this. We'll just go with the front seven here. I want to – well, you can tell me what you've got for them. A-plus. It felt like Levis was pressured on every single drop back. He dropped back 31 times. I would be curious, and we could probably look this up. I don't have it right in front of me, but the pressure percentage

or the pressure rate, it felt like it was every single time. Jonathan Grenard, I don't think he got credit for a sack today because there was one play where he tackled Levis in the backfield, and I think that was a quarterback. They considered that a quarterback run. So technically, no, he did not get a sack today, but he had more pressures than any man on the planet, it felt today. And Andrew Van Ginkle is consistently proving that he is maybe the best player

on this defense. So Pat Jones had two sacks. Like all of those things working together, like I don't know how it couldn't be an A+, just based on their ability to rush the passer. And oh, by the way, they held the Tennessee Titans to 33 yards rushing. So it was just an A-plus all around. They stopped the run.

They got after Will Levis. Yeah, there's nothing else to say. It was, in my opinion opinion one of their best games of the season cashman once again gets a sack early in the game uh ivan pace was running free on a play van ginkle has this bendiness about him where i think there's one play where he gets a sack where a tackle goes out he's like i i've got oh. I don't got him because he just swooped around him. He's just like a bird the way that he tilts his body to go around edges and things like that.

Terrific. Patrick Jones, as you mentioned, back in the mix with a couple of kind of cleanup sacks as Patrick Jones does. But that's what seven on the year. So you can't, can't be against that. It was an excellent performance. They were playing against a line that stunk and a quarterback who couldn't identify against them in the first half. And they took full advantage of it. How about the, I don't have a lot more to say there. It

was just great. And what they've done these last three games, these guys have been nothing short of a plus for the three game collection coming out of that mini buy. They haven't allowed anybody to run on them. And these three teams can run. I mean, Tony Pollard's good player. So was a Bigsby and ETN. And so was Jonathan Taylor and the middle of the D line, which never gets any credit for this has been great. The last couple of games, Phillips, Jonathan Bullard, Jerry Tillery was in on one play in the backfield. They've been just outstanding. The secondary part is weird because one of the worst plays that they had all day didn't count. And it didn't count for such a bogus reason. And I feel bad for the kid who can't line up, but like that had nothing to do with why will levis threw

the wide open receiver who went for a touchdown it but it's hard to give them an f because of the final stat line and how many points they scored but the secondary it was it was not as good as you would have hoped for today no and like i think they were tracking towards an a-grade themselves at one point and like it really felt like Will Levis had snowballed and spiraled out of control and then Josh Metellus takes a terrible angle on a ball he kind of flips his hips like I know what he was trying to do he's trying to undercut it because it looked like he well levis was throwing him the ball um but he took a bad angle next thing you know nick westbrook akina is running 98 yards down the field the defense the secondary by themselves like gave up a 100 yard play like that's already bad but that seemed to give well levis some juice and then he throws that ball to ridley that should have counted like

i don't know like we're gonna have to figure out something with these illegal procedure calls because, like, no one wants to watch this. I guess Vikings fans were fine with it because it took away, like, a 60-yard touchdown for Calvin Ridley. But I think that player, that miscue by Josh Metellus gave Will Levis juice, gave everyone else juice. There was another play i can think of where i think the guy's name yeah bryce oliver i don't know who that is um but like i think shaq griffin was playing too deep and like they brian flores sent eight and shaq griffin got

beat over the middle for for another long touchdown or another long completion a 33 yarder so there were just too many of those plays today were deep downfield. It was too, too much, too much given up. It felt a little Ramsey at times where against the Los Angeles Rams, it felt like they were just throwing into those vacancies against the Detroit lions felt like they were throwing into those vacancies today. It seemed like the vacancy was just completely over the top. We have a quarterback who can throw at 60 yards and we think our fast guy can

get to that space before you can. I do think some of it maybe falls back on Brian Flores, like just being aggressive, like live by the blitz, die by the blitz, puts your secondary in situations where they can get beat like that. But overall, I just thought like it could have been a really good day for the secondary. And it ends up looking a lot more like a pretty bad day for the secondary. Harrison Smith ends it with an interception that like the game wasn't going,

it wasn't hanging on the balance. It's not like the Vikings lose if Harrison Smith doesn't intercept that ball, but kind of a cool thing for Harrison Smith to get one of those in what might be his final game in his home state. So overall, I don't know. I can't give it an F. I would probably give it like a C minus, D plus. There were still things that they did that I thought were commendable,

but there was enough there to make you kind of turn your head and say, if it looks like this against the good teams, there's a chance. Those good teams could just run away. If they can block it up. That was the thing is that the Titans couldn't block it up for the most part. The one time they did, they throw for a 98 yard touchdown. They didn't tackle particularly well. There were guys running open.

Ridley was open and made plays on the sideline. I, yeah, I I mean c- is probably right uh hanky panky with the super chat thank you so much uh says uh it seems like Flores gets a little too lax when the team is winning I think what Flores does Dane is that he will blitz and play deep coverage when they're winning and it's's sort of, it's not exactly a prevent. It's like his version of prevent. He's going to try to pressure you up front, but he's going to leave a lot of the underneath stuff open, knowing we're up by 10 points or we're up by how many ever points you're going to have to throw a lot of passes. And normally that works because that 98 yard touchdown doesn't happen. And some of the

completions underneath, you would always say you're okay with like when they get the field goal drives, it's fine. Go ahead, get a field goal drive. So I think that when it comes to guys who blitz, it's always going to be the case that when it goes wrong, it just goes so bad when, when you blitz and that's, that's Flores. He's willing to take that. It's sort of like the Sam Darnold on offense where when he's throwing deep, it's great and you love it. And when he's thrown interceptions, you hate it.

And there really isn't much of an in-between. Yeah. And I think that a perfect example is that 98 yard touchdown. Like he was going for the knockout. They were at the two yard line. They had almost just recorded a safety because Tony Pollard barely got out of the end zone. And then the Titans literally ran a QB sneak because they were afraid to run anything else. And I think Flores is going for the knockout there. And I think if that blitz gets home or if Will Levis does something stupid, like we've seen him do at times in his career, people are saying like,

awesome, like way to dial it up and not let your foot off the gas. So I don't know if lax is the right word. I don't know if he gets lax because I think he's still going to continue to bring it and like not sit in necessarily this like prevent defense of like not get beat over the top that was I know that was the goal like let's not get beat over the top if I'm gonna send eight here at the two yard line but they did but I think you're right like that's just how it is like sometimes he dials up this this exotic scheme pre-snap and it works and the quarterback is confused and he throws it right to a viking or he takes a bad sack and everyone's praising brian flores it is a live

by the sword die by the sword thing though because it can sometimes look like not even like the 98 yard touchdown like that's not always how it's going to look but third and long he dials up the blitz it doesn't get home someone you know they find that vacancy behind the linebacker in front of the safety it goes for a first down like we've seen that this year um but i think we're going to continue to see that because that's that's just how it is someone asked him i forget which of us asked him going into the matchup with the Lions, how do you prepare for a guy like Ben Johnson? And what he said is very emblematic of who he is.

Like Brian Flores said, I fight fire with fire. I just like to do that. He's always going to do that. So, yeah, some days really, really good. Some days it's going to look really, really bad. Today it kind of looked both at the same time. So that's just kind of how it is with him. Even when you give up a 98-yard touchdown, though,

the final result is 13 points and I think 11 first downs. Yep. Hard to be too upset about that. I mean, I think it's these last three weeks have been way more wins for Brian Flores than losses in three overall dominating defensive performances that are going to put this defense as the clear cut number one defense in the league compared to anybody else. When you look at the EPA stats or the DVOA, which we had Aaron shots on the other day, it's, it's hard to make a case against what they've been able to do, even if sometimes with that approach, it does look bad and you get beat.

Chris says, my concern still remains the offensive play calling and its predictability, Darnold's decision-making and its speed make it easy for Darnold, but also somehow just can't see easier options. And Drew also asked, what do you think of the KOC play calling, which kind of leads us to the other part of grading the coaches. I mean, with Flores, I mean, we'd have to give them a pretty high grade for the final results, even if there was the miscue. But as far as Kevin O'Connell

and the play calling, I don't have much to criticize here. There were no trick plays, thank God, no trick plays. But no trick plays but i mean i'm not sure i didn't like the fade at the goal line i didn't like the overall approach at the goal line but it's i don't really have one or a situation maybe coming out of halftime and kind of going right back like we're gonna throw we're gonna throw but throwing was the most effective thing they were doing today so i can't say that they lean too heavily on the passing game. I just think that this is an always in forever, like on your couch or in the press box thing with coaches that no matter what happens, if it's not the 98 Vikings, we're always going to criticize the play caller. But when we look at the results, tons of first downs,

they scored points. They should have had another touchdown for Jalen Naylor. They should have put 30 on the board. I, I just can't get too deep in the weeds here with critiques for KOC's coaching today. No, me neither. I, I, I'm actually kind of surprised that people were like, I'm sure like your tier points, probably just always going to be a thing unless you beat a team 52 to 6 like the lions do every week it seems like what is the easiest thing

to chalk up the the slog of the offense to uh the play calling it needs work well like what what like yeah i'm sure if every single time he could call a play that he knew was going to work, he would just call it. But sometimes the play you call gets blown up because Jeffrey Simmons blows Garrett Bradbury into the backfield because he's a really good player. Or sometimes the play you call, you want to stick with the run and it just doesn't happen because they're getting so much interior pressure in the middle. So like, I think today, like I would actually commend the play calling because he did still stick with the run. And I, I've seen in the past, I think two years ago, Kevin O'Connell would have completely abandoned the run. And this is a game where I think it was very important to run and keep the play clock rolling because as long as you didn't do anything dumb, you were going to walk out of the building with a win.

But I think two years ago, Kevin O'Connell might have said, like, we're averaging 2.5 yards a run. I can't do it anymore. Like, everything is pass, pass, pass. And sometimes we're going to go three and out. We're going to take eight seconds off the clock. He didn't do that today. So I didn't have an issue with the play calling.

The only one I actually did have an issue with was like, after the shot play to Jalen Naylor, I think that was on first down. They took like another shot to the sideline right to date Jalen Naylor. Like I'm okay there. If you want to just like, even if you can't run, just run it, like see if you can pop five yards and put yourself in third and manageable. And if you don't like at least you're click clearing the you know moving the clock if you're gonna throw there like i just want to find

jefferson i don't need to throw to nailer there it it did kind of get hard for the vikings late because jordan addison went away with cramping and didn't return maybe addison catches that deep off that's to him instead of nailer like that's just a rabbit hole that we could you know you could kind of go down if you wanted to but the play calling as a whole I did not have an issue with it today and I think largely because they still managed to at least commit to the run when it wasn't even always there so fine by me I don't know what the grade is probably B and for Flores I would like I'd want to give him like an A but I the the 100 yard touchdown like you probably get brought down a little bit for that but for Flores like that's not his fault Josh Fidelis just makes a better play on the ball and that goes as an incompletion so maybe an A minus for flores and a b b plus for kevin

o'connell like i thought it was a pretty good coaching day all around uh on the special teams poor parker robo doinked an extra point ah well he came back and and uh hit the field goal there so uh there there wasn't a real meltdown of special teams ty chandler's penalty very suspect but again you can't really complain about the penalties today on the Viking side because they handed the Vikings a ton of yards, but the guy was maybe one inch out of bounds running full speed when Chandler hit him. I think he just hit him so hard that the refs were like, I better, I better throw a, uh, a penalty or something, but just to circle back on the KOC stuff,

I thought where he did his best work was early getting the ball to Addison. And I mean, the play call where he breaks him wide open, that was, he was so open. It was like a high school touchdown. You see that all the time where the corners just completely forget somebody and he runs uncontested to the end zone.

You just don't even see that a lot in the NFL. So I thought getting the ball to Addison, though, consistently early on, you know that that has to happen in order for this offense to be really good. And that was able to happen today. So do we have any more takeaways, Dane, after this? I don't know if free 87 is funny. Yeah, that's just how it's going to be. Like sometimes the tight end is not always going to catch a bunch of passes and maybe, I mean, I don't know. Like every time I read a critique of the play calling, I'm like, I'm not really sure that that's it. You know, Preston says, didn't trust Darnold and got the

ball in the second half. Why give Tennessee anything to build on? But I think they threw when they got the ball back and it just didn't work out. There are lulls. Okay. So the one last topic really is, and I tweeted this at some point, a fan that I follow just said, why can't we just blow somebody out? I mean, what the heck, right? And they did it to, funny thing is they did it to a good team earlier houston where they just walked all over them but since then they let green bay hang around they let the jets hang around and all three of the last three jokers of uh teams that they've played have all stayed in the game into the fourth quarter what is your what is your take on that like why is that i think part of it like has to do with sam darnold like i think at times over the last two weeks like they didn't blow the colts

out because they almost lost to the colts until like the colts remembered they were worse than the vikings and they just kind of fell apart in the second half. But I think, I think it's important to like look at each game. I sound like Kirk cousins as its own entity. Like I don't think it's, it's necessary. Go ahead. I'm sorry. Did you, have you seen what's happening today to the Falcons by the way? No, what is the score? They're down 28 to six. I'm sorry. I didn't mean to interrupt you. I just, I got a text from someone and I just looked and I went, Oh my gosh. And just as you were saying, Kirk cousins, I apologize. May go continue with your point, but wow. Wow. Yeah. That turns out you didn't need to pay. No,

I won't go there, but I think it is is important like each week you need to look at it as its own thing like because there is each there's reasons each week why they can't blow a team out it's not like the same like I don't think it's written into the Vikings DNA that they're just incapable of blowing out a bad team I think last week they blow them out if Sam Darnold doesn't throw just three of the worst interceptions you've ever seen. I think this week they blow them out if Josh Metellus doesn't take a horrible angle on a ball and allow a 98-yard touchdown. So I think there are just inconsistencies with this team,

and maybe that just speaks to overall there are still areas of this team that need to be improved or developed. And that probably goes back to, we thought that they were going to be pretty good this year, but I don't think we thought they were going to win 12, 13 games. Like maybe part of why they're not blowing these teams out and they're winning more on the margins is because they do still have areas that, that because the people that are projecting their win total thought they were going to win six and a half games. Like they were wrong,

but maybe parts of that, that equation were right. Where like, there still are weaknesses. There's still going to be a Darnold week like that. There's still going to be weaknesses in the secondary and maybe collectively like those things don't all show up at once and you lose the game but they show up over the course of a game and that that disallows you from from just running away with it so what i will say is not a lot of teams blow teams out in the nfl and i get it like the vikings fans have to look at the nfc north every single week and say well the lions did it

again they just scored 40 points for the fourth time this season. But the Chiefs, they play close every week and they're undefeated. The Ravens, they've lost four games now. They lost to the Pittsburgh Steelers today. I do think there is an unfair wanting of your favorite football team to, if they win, well, why didn't they win by more? Because I like,

it's, it's hard. I think Harrison Smith put it best after the game. He said, there's no homecoming games in the NFL. Like, it's not like you just schedule a tomato can, and then you just beat the crap out of them for 60 minutes.

Like Tennessee has pro bowlers. They have good players. Like it, like like the the jaguars they they didn't really have that many good players but i i don't know i now i'm kind of just rambling but i do think like when you look at just like the collective of this team there's there's areas that still need to be improved and i think those show up every so often and i think that's why like we haven't seen like a total 60 minute display. Like we have, we saw against Houston. I just want to read this to you. Bo Nix is 21 for 25 with 216 yards, four total touchdowns.

He's also run. Oh no, I'm sorry. Three total touchdowns. And, and, uh, well, he hasn't run that much, but he's passed incredibly well in this game against the Falcons. And that was one point I was going to make is that, that Tennessee today, the Jaguars game, they killed the Jaguars. You'll never convince me of anything else. They killed that team and Darnold through three bad passes and that ruined that game. But on a game game like today it can be a little bit of styles make fights i mean the fact that tennessee had this really good defensive line and interior

that's always been the weakness and it probably will continue to be as long as your center is who he is teams like this are going to attack that and it might depend on your matchups but the other thing is they were number one in yards coming in and you saw some of the reason why very physical team with a lot of talent on the defensive side. And they've probably allowed that many points because their quarterbacks have been throwing it to the other team all season long. But the yardage maybe told a little bit more of the truth there about them as a defense. So each week it was its own story as, as you said, for why they didn't blow these teams out. Um, but they did outplay them, which, as you said, for why they didn't blow these teams out. Um, but they did outplay them, which is important. It's not like they lucked into these

three wins. They outplay them. I tweeted at halftime, the Vikings had over a thousand yards in 10 quarters of football versus less than 500 over the last three weeks. And so that changed a little bit with a 90 yard touchdown. But if you look at the yardage differential, the first downs, the first downs have to be 75 to 40 or better for the Vikings over these last three games. I think it's kind of the devil in the details of finish a drive, you know, put, put the foot on the gas, things like that. But also I think you make a fair point too, that when you pay attention so closely to your team, you kind of, Oh, another team had a bad loss, whatever, you know, like this, like this Falcons, like you're not paying that close of attention to that. But if you were there watching the Falcons, you'd be losing your mind right now. Like not having a bad loss happen to

them is also telling as well because bad teams have bad meltdown losses and they didn't have that. So I, I have not moved my opinion on this team really since the loss of the Rams. I said that I wouldn't, and I would still continue to have them as a top NFC team that is not the top NFC team. Um, but we can, I mean, we could definitely say they're better than the Falcons. It's really, to me, we could definitely say they're better than the Falcons. It's really, to me, it's the Vikings and Philadelphia have emerged as the second tier. And then I think Washington might even be a level down and Arizona's a level down and Atlanta's a level down and probably Tampa Bay, San Francisco. So if you can be in the conversation for the second best team in your conference, that is pretty good. And when I see stuff in the conversation for the second best team in your conference. That is pretty good. You know, and when I see stuff in the, in the comment section about, well, what are we going

to do in free agency or whatever? I did talk about that a little, cause I had run out of things to say about the Titans the other night. So if you want to watch, I ain't going to talk about that for a single second, the rest of the way you will not hear me. This is one of the best seasons you guys are ever going to have. Or at least you're right there. And you're either going to make it or you're not. But right now, they have put themselves in a position to have one of the best seasons since 1998 that this team has had and go into the playoffs. This is where they are.

They could go into the playoffs as the second best favorite to take the conference. I mean, that's an incredible place to be. So my thing is if, if that's what they do, then we'll never talk about this again. We'll never think about it again. If they beat the Cardinals, if they beat the bears next week, if they beat the Falcons, there's probably a bad loss or two mixed in. But if you go into that week 18 talking about being one of the best teams in the league, then you have accomplished a great NFL season. That's the position that they're in.

That didn't change today. And that's kind of the final works. I think Dane froze. Yes, he did. I think Dane's head is frozen. Well, if you can hear me, Dane, or maybe he fell asleep, kind of looks like he might've fell asleep. I guess it's a perfect time to wrap up the show. Okay. Well, I'll just apologize to Dane, but shout out to Tennessee. I didn't know they had internet in Tennessee at that stadium. So, you know, good for them.

But that was going to be my final statement anyway. Dane said his computer turned off. So maybe he forgot to plug it in. That's happened to be my final statement anyway. Dane said his computer turned off, so maybe he forgot to plug it in. That's happened to me before. But great postgame chat, though. I really appreciate you guys. This week, it was a really enjoyable postgame show because of you guys. Great questions, commentary, and all that stuff.

And the Vikings are 8-2. What else can you say? I mean, at the end of the day, that's what we're walking out of this with. Eight and two. One of the best teams in the NFL. So thanks so much, everybody, for watching slash listening. And we will catch you all next time. Enjoy the rest of your football day.

Should be great. All right. Take care, everybody.